Well, I have packed a lot more boxes since I last wrote.  Moving day is approaching fast.  I was reading some information about preparing my body for pregnancy and was startled to read about tannins in tea.  I have given up coffee (about 8 years ago - I relied on coffee a lot through my uni days) and always thought that tea was fine to drink when you are trying for a baby as I had heard that the caffeine in tea is not easily absorbed by the body.  But I hadn't read anything about tannins before.

After reading some more info I have decided to drink one cup of tea per day and follow some advice I just read.  It was in relation to the caffeine in tea and how to reduce it.  Caffeine is very water soluble and apparently if I pour in the hot water and leave the tea bag to soak for 30 to 45 seconds and then tip out the water, around 80% of the caffeine will have left the tea bag.  Then if I fill the cup again using the same tea bag and make my tea with it, it should contain minimal caffeine.

No one has mentioned if this tea making technique helps with removing the tannins so I guess it doesn't, but I think I will give it go tomorrow morning and just stick to my morning cup of tea and drink water the rest of the day.  This will be quite hard because up until this very second I drank around 6 - 8 cups a day.  I think my tea drinking habit is worthy of the effort required to break it though, if it means I get one step closer to being pregnant!

I thought I would list some information about Caffeine and why I am trying to avoid it:

Caffeine is a stimulant which causes blood pressure to increase.  It also increases the heart rate.  Caffeine is also a diuretic which increases urination which in turn can reduce fluid levels and lead to dehydration.  In my research today I have found black tea has approximately 60mg of Caffeine and some experts and studies have stated that "moderate" levels of caffeine (150 mg - 300 mg a day) have not been found to have a negative effect on pregnancy. But I think the less caffeine the better, hence my new tea making technique that I will be testing out tomorrow.  I’ll let you know how it goes!