To start out...32-week midwife appointment. I was a little annoyed because I sat in the waiting room FOREVER- pushing back my appointment by 1/2 hour and resulting in me having to cancel my chiropractor appointment that I had scheduled immediately following my appointment with Carlene. Their offices are only few blocks apart, and I KNEW there was no way my grand scheme to drive downtown only once this week wasn't going to pan out.
Anyways...blood pressure was still great, baby's heart rate still supports my "boy" feeling (130s), measuring on schedule, and- get this- baby is head down! Must be all that meditation I've been doing lately. My mom claims all 7 of us were transverse until the bitter end, and we were all born sunny-side-up (posterior), which had me somewhat concerned, to say the least. Although there is time for the baby to turn AGAIN, space is becoming more limited by the day, and I'm confident that baby will cooperate and stay where he/she is.
I asked Carlene (mw) about the dosage on my red raspberry leaf tea, and she says to keep on, keepin' on. She said that nettle and alfalfa were great additions too, so after my appointment I headed straight to the herb place to procure some. I felt a little like Harry Potter in Potions class ordering the herbs by the ounce, but it's cool. I mixed some tea up according to the following proportions when I got home, added some honey, and I must say....yummy! If you don't know, red raspberry leaf tones and strengthens the uterus and helps it to work more effectively in labor (fewer contractions and shorter labor, anyone???), and nettle and alfalfa are rich in vitamins and iron. According to Ina May Gaskin, (as in the world-renowned midwife and my personal hero), she's seen great results when treating anemic women with alfalfa as opposed to traditional iron pills. Alfalfa doesn't have all the nasty side effects of iron pills, either. I also picked up some blackstrap molasses, also very rich in iron (20% of the RDA in 1 tablespoon!), which I plan to mix in with my greek yogurt and flax granola in the morning. If you want to know more about herbs, here's a good site. By the way, I picked up everything I needed today for $11 total, and it's enough for WEEKS of a three-times-day tea habit. Compare that with Traditional Medicinals Pregnancy Tea by the box ($8 for 15 bags or so), and so see what a good deal this is! Plus, you can customize! Without further ado, a recipe for pregnancy tea:
8 parts Red Raspberry Leaf
3 parts Alfalfa
3 parts Peppermint
2 parts Nettle
Combine (I used a ziploc bag and just shook it up- I recommend using a tablespoon for your "part"). Steep 2-3 teaspoons in freshly boiled water for 5-10 minutes. Add honey (my personal recommendation) and enjoy! You could also store in the refrigerator and enjoy over ice.
Finally, I'm going to give myself kudos for working on my "pregnancy fitness"- no, I don't mean running. I've been kegel-ing, tailor-sitting, squatting, meditating, side-laying, and "relaxing" my butt off- you fellow Bradley birthing mamas know what I'm talking about.
2 comments:
Wow, Emily, you're so on top of it with the red raspberry leaf tea and all the other herbs as well.
I knew NOTHING about alfalfa. Shoot, when I was anemic I had the iron pills (didn't help) and then did a bunch of research on diet: which were high-iron foods, which were 100% iron-fortified cereals, which veggies had the most iron in them - and took them all with o.j. to increase the absorbtion. Not much help, but it did a little. I took liquid chlorophyll, and it helped a little too.
But I never heard about alfalfa. Sheesh, wish I had.
The molasses I had was only 4% RDA. I've got to go find a better brand, as I just ran out making homemade pumpernickel bread. Thanks for the heads up. Mixing it with the greek yogurt sounds yum!
I'll have to find out where you bought your herbs.
Oh yeah - great job on the bradley exercises! Especially kegels, total body relaxing, and tailor-sitting were really helpful to me. Also, visualization was a huge help in the earlier parts of labor (and maybe up to halfway throught the serious stage).
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