Stiff hands?

Hi everyone,

I've had a relatively uneventful pregnancy (suspected blood clot in lung at 25 weeks notwithstanding) right up until the week before I left work. This was 2 weeks ago now, and I left early one day because my hands and feet had ballooned, so I wanted to go to the GP and get the BP and urine tested ASAP.
Now, that was fine- BP was quite low, urine free of all and any protein- and I was told to go home and put my feet up, which I was quite happy to do. ;)

But ever since then, my hands have been really really stiff! Curling them into fists actually hurts a bit; they feel quite clumsy and I can really feel the stiffness when I rub them together. Has anyone had this? Any ideas as to why? Or how to treat it? Will it go away once the baby's here?

All advice will be leaped on with cries of glee and gratitude...

Kirsten

That sounds a bit odd!! Could it possibly be due to the freezing cold weather or something else rather than a pregnancy thing?

Dunno, but I get a similar thing.
I always thought that it was the cold, or maybe a small amount of fluid in my knuckles. It's not all the time, and I know with my last pregnancy I swelled up and then went down all the time in the last few weeks (BP always stayed fine though, so it was nothing to worry about).
I always chekc my hands and ankels for swelling now.

It sounds a lot like carpal tunnel to me. Nine times out of ten it will disappear once bubby arrives, I had it for about 3 days after Zander was born then it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. It's because of fluid build up.

Is it worse in the mornings? Some people wear wrist braces overnight to help or like I did, you can sleep with your arms raised on pillows to help stop the fluid pooling in the carpal tunnel which is what causes the pain.

I had this too. Keep an eye on it after bubs is born. I never got it diagnosed but i suspect it was carpal tunnel. After DD was born it went a bit then came back very badly - it was a symptom of my underactive thyroid. If it's still there when bubs is a few months old or if it's hurting so bad you have trouble doing things (i couldn't open my blinds because it was too painful to grip the cord) then see the doc about it.

Bec

yep sounds like caprpal tunnel to me. you should stretch your wrists every night before bed and if really bad you can get a wrist brace to wear during the nights...

I have had carpal tunnel for most of pg.
Do the wrist splints work? Although not good to me now.... am 39wks5 days

Yep... it definitely sounds like Carpal Tunnel to me... I had CT with Harrison and most of the time, I was in pain with it... but toward the end (the last month to be exact) I was like this... I remember my hands stiffening up and going almost like a claw when I was holding my then 5 month old nephew... I had to get DH to take him off me because I was scared about dropping him.
I still get it on and off... but nothing like it was during my pregnancy.

Thanks everyone! I will definitely keep an eye on it. It's much worse today for some reason- my right hand is visibly swollen and stiff and quite painful. :(
I will look into getting wrist braces- sleeping with my arms raised leads to numb hands, unfortunately. Roll on this baby turning up...

Kirsten