pregnant and cant sleep due to twitchy legs/arms

[pommie]

Wondered if anyone had any advice on how to deal with this. Usually just my legs that decide to start twitching when im ready to sleep but now tonight, my arms wont stop and i am so tired cos i cant sleep

[Fuschia]

A good pregnancy full body pillow and a hypnotherapy track on my iPod .,,

X

[hellosailor]

ugh, the dreaded restless legs syndrome, was the bane of my pregnancy too, I feel for you, - cutting down or eliminating caffeine can help.

[littlemoo]

Bananas are meant to help, and they work a bit with me. Good luck, it's horrible...

[Pickle]

Potassium is supposed to help, which bananas are full of. Horrible thing to have, I sympathise

[pommie]

ok will try the bananas and hopefully they will help, thanks everyone

[Goodliz]

This is awful. I get it even when not preggers and have had it for years and years. Particularly annoying for you with the arms too - I only occassionaly get the arms.

I find the best thing to do is get out of bed and go and sleep somewhere else. If you have a spare bed, on the sofa or on the floor. I spent most nights in the later stages of both pregnancies sleeping on the sofa. There was something about getting onto a cooler surface that helped. If I cannot be bothered to get out of bed and sleep elsewhere I take the covers off me and let myself get really cold until I have to put them back on. For some reason this works.

As Pickle mentioned Potassium is supposed to help. I also read it can be to do with low sodium - whether that is true I don't know but a nice excuse for a packet of salt and vinegar crisps.

Good luck. x

[QueenMab]

I am monitoring this thread now, I also suffered from this when pregnant, and then weirdly got it really badly in my arms just after birth and during feeding, it's horrible!

[Knomester]

Pommie you have my every sympathy. It was one of the things that drove me potty when I was pregnant with Baby Knomester...

Like Goodliz I suffer from restless legs and have done since I was a child. Unfortunately I have never found any reliable remedy (although I'm intrigued by the potassium suggestion so off to research that now...). I find that I have to get to sleep before I am very tired to stop the 'crawling' feeling in my legs from starting. It's worse if I nod off and wake up again before falling into a deep sleep which I imagine is causing you problems if you're having night wakings with being pregnant. It means being quite diligent and getting to bed early before over tiredness sets in. Are you able to sneak a little afternoon nap occasionally? That may help with not being overtired when it comes to bedtime.

A cool bed can help as others have mentioned. If my legs are bad I throw the covers off until I am completely cold before trying to sleep again.

I hope you can get some rest soon...

[Yak]

I echo what everyone has said about bananas. Also tonic water is supposed to be good, as it contains quinine. I'm not sure of the scientific basis of it, but maybe worth a try?

You have my sincere sympathies; pregnancy is the time when everyone is telling you to stock up on sleep and it is so tiring and annoying when you can't get comfy.

[mothercourage]

I suffered from this too. It stopped when I started taking iron supplements (2 sachets of Spatone taken with orange juice to help absorption). Not sure if it was coincidence or not but worth a try?

[QueenMab]

I took the Pregnacare Multivits throughout pregnancy and my blood test showed good iron levels, so I don't think it could have been the iron levels for me. I definitely agree about getting to bed early before tiredness sets in though. I do remember it got worse if I stayed up when tired. Also, if I took myself off to bed the second I started getting that feeling, it tended to stave off the worst excesses of it.

[Saffron]

Try using a TENS machine on the muscle groups which are most affected. In theory the earlier you use it, possibly even before noticable symptoms begin, and the more nights you use it, the more effective it should become.

Potassium and also calcium are thought to help with restless limbs b/c these ions are essential in muscle tone and movement. Quinine's exact mechanism of action is unknown, but it appears to affect calcium distribution in the muscle fibre. I believe in the States the FDA recently withdrew approval of over-the-counter quinine for leg cramps due to concerns over serious side effects at the doses offered. You probably don't get enough quinine in tonic water to have a significant effect on muscle tone alone, but perhaps worth a go combined with any of the above?

[pipling]

I had this for all 3 pregnancies. On the 3rd I was desperate to find a cure! One night I ate a whole bar of Green and Blacks Almond and I didn't have restless legs! Further research suggested iron may be a factor, so I hoped it had been the almonds and not the chocolate! I moved my 10mls of Florivital per day to just before bed and the restless legs completely stopped. I was so relieved. Prior to that I had been trying oxygen cream on my legs - it worked but I could not bear the feeling of the cream on my skin as it was applied - I was really sensitive to it. In addition the cream was crazy expensive but I was given it as a gift.

Good luck! I get everything when pregnant - heartburn, insomnia....the lot. Hopefully, if I have a fourth I will have all the tricks to defeat these grumbles up my sleeve!

[missmack1981]

The first thing I thought of was that you need swaddling!

Sorry.. am in newborn mode and have had a large amount of wine!

[pommie]

ha ha thanks missmack

I actually have been eating a banana before bedtime for the last couple of nights and so far, the twitching has stopped. Im hoping it will last

[rolphie75]

I had this so badly with both pregnancies, it was just horrendous. I went to the dulwich therapy rooms on lordship lane in desperation, and was told to get some magnesium phosphate. The brand is New Era, and its called Mag.Phos 8. Its brilliant, and totally safe to take as homeopathic- I was necking them by the dozen! Good luck!