Cracking, aching joints

[peaceloveandbiscuits]

I'm 3 months PP with my second child and 31 years old. I'm very active, don't drive so I walk everywhere. Since I gave birth my ankles ache and get stiff and need cracking every few minutes, and my other joints are so stiff that I seize up when I get up from sitting down, like an elderly woman.

I didn't put on any extra weight of my own in pregnancy - I'm the same weight now as I was before I got pregnant (not boasting; still very overweight - thyroid issues mean I don't lose or gain weight) so I don't think it's down to that.

I'm exclusively breastfeeding, if that makes a difference. Is this to do with relaxin? I'm tired of feeling like an 80 year old and wonder if I'll ever feel back to normal.

I'm 34 with a one year old and I feel exactly the same! When I wake up in the morning, I struggle to get downstairs until my joints have loosened up a bit. Even just sitting to eat, I'm stiff when I stand up again. I'm back at work and cycling the six mile journey twice a week but I don't feel like I'm getting any fitter. The journey isn't even strenuous - canal-side for most of it. I used to cycle a lot further before I got pregnant. Dr Google hasn't really come up with anything as I think it's hard to describe the symptoms accurately but you're not alone!

Sorry you're in the same boat, Autumn, especially a year on! I don't remember feeling this way after my first (2.9y).

Bumpy bump

I also have this most of my joints click and pop and get sore I an still suffer with symptoms of SPD too. I am bf and think it's the relaxin in our system, Should hopefully pass when we stop.

I would see your gp. Two of my friends developed a form of arthritis post-natally so it's worth checking out.

So there's still relaxin stuff going on when you breastfeed? That makes sense. Unfortunately for me I fed DS1 for over a year so if DS2 follows suit I've got a while to go before I get any relief.

Oh reynolds I've got such a list of things to bother the GP with I have to prioritise. I went to them a year or so ago about a weird electric shock pain I get in my thigh/buttock when I bend over and they referred me for physiotherapy which still hasn't materialised. My children have broken me.

Mine broke me too!
I've started swimming - lots. It sorts the popping and pain out. But it comes back as soon as I stop 😥

There's something called post partum arthralgia which is caused by hormones hanging around after giving birth. I was so worried that I was developing arthritis but it seems that joint pain after pregnancy is not uncommon. It lasts longer if you're breastfeeding but for me it got significantly better once I had started weaning.

No advice to offer, but thank you for posting this! My DS is nearly 3 months and I'm like an old lady first thing in the morning. So stiff and creaky. Good to know it's not just me.

I've also got a one year old and I feel like an old person sometimes.

It's my ankles, feet and knees in particular. When I wake up in the morning it hurts to stand up.

I've kind of got used to it now, which is a bit shit.

Does anyone else have some hypermobility? I read somewhere that it could be linked to that. I've never been diagnosed with hypermobility but I have freakishly bendy fingers, can put my feet in my mouth (not an activity I engage in often!) etc.