muscle cramps when pregnant

[jgilly]

hi
early this morning whilst in bed i got the worse muscle cramp in my calf. I turned over and the pain woke me- it went for about 15 minutes on and off and i have had muscle soreness all day. My calf muscle is still rock hard and very tight . Has anyway else experienced this and if so do they know why??? i am 34 weeks pregnant if this stage of pregnancy has anything to do with it!!!

[Sammiejane]

HI,

I have been getting these on and off the whole pg. they are pretty common, but usually are a result of low magnesium and dehydration.
I have found that the days that i am not drinking enough water i will get a cramp at night.
Stretching before bed if i have been really hot and think that i may be a bit dehyrated helps too.

Hope this helps

By the way when are you due?

[Tobily]

I had these terribly from second trimester onwards in my first pregnancy but never got a single one with my second...weird!

As sammiejane said they are very common. I always found the best thing to stop them was to get up and stand with all my weight on the affected leg, foot flat on the floor. That usually stopped it in it's tracks.

I've also heard bananas are supposed to help (lots of potassium) but I ate heaps of them and it didn't make any difference to me.

[jgilly]

hi
thanks girls for your response- could be from dehydration as i tend not to drink enough water--even less being pregnant as i hate constantly going to the toilet. i am about 34 weeks as well so my due date is 29th Feb but actually booked in for a cs on 22nd Feb due to having major complications with blood pressure and preclampsia first pregnancy so having baby 1 week early as a precaution. Will try and drink more during day and also take into account a banana a day.