If restless leg syndrome does not dissipate after this baby is born....

[weebigmamma]

.... I don't know what I'll feckin do. I feel like I could cope with ANYTHING else. Bloody horrendous. Think i'll be awake and pacing the house for the next 3 weeks.

[furlinedsheepskinjacket]

have you tried putting an unwrapped white bar of soap in the bottom of your bed

it works for me

[yellowrose2728]

It does go I used to cry in pure frustration with mine.

Within a week of DD being born - all gone

[YNK]

Mine didn't go. It is however managed well with medication now.
There is a fab site called rlshelp.org with lots of advice.
So sorry your pregnancy is affected. It is a horrible and much misunderstood illness!

[weebigmamma]

I will try the soap tomorrow. I have had no sleep tonight and crying for an hour has actually been the highlight because it took my mind off it in a weird way. I actually don't think I could cope with life if it didn't go away after the baby.

[itsbetterthanabox]

Why would soap help?
Are you anemic? May be good to test as it can be a sign.

[weebigmamma]

I have no effing clue why soap would work and I don't care. I'd put a horses head at the end of my bed if someone said it worked for them. No, I'm not anaemic.

[ipswichwitch]

Both pregnancies I had restless leg syndrome and both times it went straight away. Was like feckin riverdance every night and I remember sobbing with frustration that I couldn't sleep, so you have my sympathy. Mw told me eating bananas worked. I must have eaten my body weight in the bastard things and it made no difference.

[weebigmamma]

Hahaha! I have also been eating bananas even though I've been told not to because of gestational bloody diabetes. Seriously tempted to drink myself into a coma but I googled alcohol and RLS and it said that it could make it worse. Just as well I suppose.

[imip]

Mine never went, I think I even got it before I was pregnant with my first dd.

I know my paternal grandmother was tormented with it and often unable to sleep for long periods of time. I manage with mine. I may keep me awake a couple of times a week, but it is not as bad as when I was pregnant.

I imagine I will need to go down the medication route at some point. I feel comforted by the poster above saying that medication is making it manageable...

[PanicMode]

Massive sympathies. I cried when I found out I was pg with #4 because I knew I would be tormented for 9 months. I still have it, but not nearly as badly - as a couple of others have said, I think I will need medication at some point, but for now it's an irritation I can deal with without it. I have never heard the bar of soap 'cure'. Why does it work?!

[YNK]

Soap in the bed, eating bananas, etc, etc.......... none of these old wives tales work!
Please visit rls.org for good advice!
RLS makes people so desperate that they are a constant target for 'snake oil salesmen' too. Please don't fall for the nonsense.

[Netguru]

This has been driving me nuts too.

Last week I got do fed up I did all the cures at once. Calcium tablets. Iron tablets. Bananas. Quinine (in tonic water) and cold and hot treatments. (Hot water bottle under calves or cold bath up to knees by sitting on side).

It worked. I got good sleep.

I have no idea which bit worked though so have up do it all now every day. With only three weeks left though I don't care.

[eurochick]

Massage seems to help, as does elevation. Mr euro is happy to rub my legs each night to try to give me a bit of relief. I had no idea it sometimes doesn't go though. Eeek.

[FlyLikeABird]

Orgasm works for some. Win win

[YNK]

Some people get short a bit of relief with cold, others hot.
Massage can take the place of pacing about.

[weebigmamma]

I think the price of a bar of soap is worth a go frankly. And if it doesn't work then you still have a bar of soap. Who cares if it works by placebo effect? I've tried everything else. Literally.

[YNK]

Try some flight socks instead!

[weebigmamma]

OK!

[Bootyluscious]

Worst part of my pregnancy! I was given magnesium tablets by my doctor which really helped and it went after baby arrived

[weebigmamma]

Thanks Booty. I will go to the doc this week if I have another night like last night.

[AncientBallerina]

I took up dance classes three nights a week (see username), well I built up from one to three over three years. I had restless legs before during and after each pregnancy, but I rarely get it now. I even used to have it sitting on the couch in the evening. Now I rarely sit on the couch :-) Obviously this not so straightforward if you are suffering while pregnant but I am convinced that curing it is to do with improving circulation and/ or muscle tone so maybe swimming and/ or pregnancy yoga? My sympathies - it is awful and no- one takes you seriously IME.

[YNK]

Exercise, quinine, magnesium, iron - none of this works!

GP's are notoriously ignorant of RLS. You need to see a neurologist if the GP does not prescribe ropinerole or gabapentin.
Please go to rlshelp,org for any other advice if you don't want to take medication.

[weebigmamma]

Thanks, YNK. I have looked it up. Thank you.

[furlinedsheepskinjacket]

ynk soap worked fine for me

I think it is something to do with some chemical in the soap

[YNK]

It could be it was going to go anyway or it might have been a placebo.
In any case I am glad you are fine now, sheepskin.