My first pregnancy I only had slight pain on the left side of my pelvis & my left leg sometimes gave way on me. Nothing major.
With DS OMG it started at 20 weeks & got worse as the pregnancy progressed (sorry not what you want to hear but its what happened in MY experience). I found that I could sleep while in a sitting up position on the lounge with a million pillows stacked around me keeping me upright while I fell asleep. I would still wake in pain at times, I'd also get a very sore neck from my head falling forward while asleep, sore teeth from them being forced together through the night from the angle my head was leaning & also dribble really badly because at times my mouth would me open while my head was hanging LOL (All in all such a pretty picture hey!)
At about 36 weeks PG we were pilgrims for World Youth Day, I did one day walking & could hardly move at the end. We had to keep stopping & sitting along the way. I took the next day off (stayed home) then hired a wheel chair for the rest of the week. A bit embarrassing & inconvenient getting around but WELL WORTH IT. So I recommend if you have any "big days" coming up that you dont want to miss out on, hire a wheel chair so you dont have to miss out or be in massive amounts of pain. It was quite cheap too.
I couldn't lay flat at all, as it was getting worse over the months while I was still able to sleep in our bed, I'd have to hold my breath & quickly try to "throw" my body over to "roll over". I usually just stayed on my left side so I didnt have to move at all & could roll out of bed in the morning.
I recommend the use of lots of pillows for support! Between your legs too (which you're prob already doing)
I couldn't lay flat for another 7 weeks after having DS, it dragged on but I guess its not that long in the scheme of things. Others have had it worse. Some are back to normal after having bubs (Wishing this for you)
I hope you find some relief, its horrendous pain & its the only thing that puts me off having another baby (I still want another though!)
Oh PP my heart goes out to you hun! You know how I suffered...things that helped were - never cross your legs, keep your weight balaced, reduce the amount of walking you do, just don't carry stuff, no lifting, no pushing shopping trolleys, don't even lift the washing basket...don't walk if you can stand, don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lie down. Don't do the grocery shopping. Just don't walk up or down stairs or up or down inclines - ever. Suck your tummy muscles in and tighten your pelvic floor (ie "brace") whenever you sit down/stand up/bend over/pick things up. Use as many pillows as you need in bed (under tummy, between legs). See a physio and get some good techniques for rolling over in bed (eg roll forwards onto your elbows and change sides that way instead of rolling onto your back), sitting up from lying, etc. They should be able to give you a good support thing like a belt or some tubigrip which looks horrible but really does make a difference. They will also give you some stretches/exercises which will help with the pain. You might even get a free bum massage every fortnight like me (LOL). Ice and heat both give some relief, but some times you might just have to take painkillers to get you through.
BTW don't despair, it does resolve fairly quickly for most women after birth - if you get to the 4-6 week mark and you're still feeling ouchy, you can see a women's physio thru ACT health - once you're not PG anymore the exercises etc work a lot more quickly. Also a lot of women swear by pilates to recover and a lot of the exercises the ACT health lady gives are variants on the pilates methods.
PS - I"m really really serious about that first paragraph. This is one situation in your life when "pushing thru the pain" is NOT helpful. Do whatever you have to to minimise the load on your pelvis. I'm not kidding. I'm now 3.5 cm shorter than I was before my pregnancy and I reckon it's purely from my pelvis moving during that time.
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