Third Trimester Raspberry Leaf Arnold Palmer Recipe
Here I am, almost 38 weeks pregnant with my second child and I once again waited till the last minute to jump on the raspberry leaf tea train! Next time if there is ever a next time I'm setting the date in my calendar, to begin at 32 weeks, so that I don't forget! 32 weeks is the recommend time to start loading up on raspberry leaf tea, in order to give it time to build up in your system and supposedly help you have a quicker labor, particularly with the pushing stage. I did drink raspberry leaf tea with Jayden, although I also started late in the game, and still pushed for 4 hours (3h 50 min of which he was crowning) and ended up having to have forceps to get him out... So did it work for me? Hard to tell. But if there is even the slightest chance that my labor was actually supposed to be harder than what it was, you better believe I'm loading up on the raspberry leaf team from here on out. I just so wish I would've started earlier, but better late than never... Last week, one of my Instagram mom friends and fellow blogger Kailyn, shared with me how she loved drinking raspberry leaf tea mixed with lemonade towards the end of her pregnancy. Ever since she mentioned it, I had to try it for myself. A few days ago I picked up twelve lemons from the fruit stand near our house and pulled together what I'm now calling the "Third Trimester Arnold Palmer" (in case you didn't know, an Arnold Palmer is a mix of 3 parts iced tea, one part lemonade). I looked up a couple of Arnold Palmer recipes and all of them called for a lot more sugar than I expected. I usually don't like any sugar in my tea, but for some reason did want to try it in this recipe, I just wasn't prepared for the 1 1/2 cups that most recipes I came across called for. In the video below, I used 1 cup, but I have since made a second batch and reduced the sugar down to 1/2 a cup, which I think is the perfect ratio of tart lemon with only a touch of sweetness. If you like your tea sweet, you'll want to add more.
Keep in mind, that raspberry leaf tea is not for everyone, so make sure you check with your doctor before over doing it. I can tell you though for me, I will be replacing my La Croix obsession with this Arnold Palmer for the reminder of my pregnancy and will also be having a couple cups of hot raspberry leaf tea each day too. I may be starting late, but if theres a chance that it will make my second labor better than my first, I'm going to do it. And for those of you that are not pregnant, this recipes is pretty darn tasty, so give it a try... you can actually use any tea you like, if raspberry leaf tea is not your thing.
