My pregnancy ritual: hydration
Here’s how it goes:
*Get out tea gear (see photo)
*Put the kettle on.
* Fill tea basket tea.
*Pour hot water over tea basket into white teapot
*Fill thermoses with hot water while tea steeps in pot
*Move basket from white tea pot to the first thermos
*Put lid on teapot
*Put lids on thermoses (noting which has tea, and which has hot water)
*Take teapot and thermoses into the office, where my mug is waiting
*Drink all the tea from the teapot
*Open the thermoses, switch basket to hot-water thermos
*Drink tea from thermos 1
*Drink tea from thermos 2
Here’s how this came about:
My sister, who’s already had a bebe, gifted me the jar you see, full of pregnancy tea. (The tea is equal parts red raspberry leaf, nettle, and oat straw. I think she added red clover just for kicks, and I’ve recently added alfalfa.) This was the jar of tea she had when she was pregnant, and I love that I get to use the same one. My sister said that she began to crave the tea, and never got tired of the taste. She also attributed the tea to the fact that her umbilical cord was incredibly strong. "They had trouble cutting it.", she said, gleefully.
I’m finding that by having tea every day, I manage to stay well hydrated. I’ve been drinking it since Thanksgiving, and I haven’t gotten tired of it (which is kind of amazing).
Oh, apparently teas that are normally otherwise fine to drink can sometimes have adverse affects during pregnancy. I liked having a huge supply of tea that I knew I could drink a lot of, without worrying about the effects on le fetus. There are some commercial brands of mother-to-be teas, which have very similar ingredients, but this was MUCH cheaper, especially considering how much of it I’m drinking. I was able to find all the herbs at my local health food store. I think the grand total was $15 to fill up the jar (and that’s at a fancy store in Cambridge where John Malkovich shops).
(trekked over here from a recent LT ER forum post – just so you know)
I drink red raspberry leaf tea every day, too. Not to stay hydrated, though (I drink about three quarters of a gallon of water every day even when I’m not pregnant). I’ve forgone the other ingredients because I’m mostly too lazy to buy and mix them. Did you know that red raspberry leaf helps tone your uterus? Supposedly it also helps keep your blood pressure normal and cleans out your system in general. I make mine by the liter with a little black tea and peppermint and stow it in the fridge (hey, I’m in Florida).
Most of the women I’ve spoken to locally are horrified that I’d “play with herbs” while eight months pregnant. But honestly, women have been drinking this stuff for ages.
Anyway. I came across your blog on a baby-thinking morning pre-coffee. Hence the babble. Sorry.
Congrats on your Soybean!