Calf cramps - what fresh hell is this?!

[YummyDollie]

Oh my giddy aunt! I'm 38+1 and have being experiencing the most agonising whole leg stiffens, can't breathe, feel like my legs are going to seize calf cramps i have ever felt in my life! How can I stop these? I eat healthy (5 fruit & veg a day and all that) do gentle exercise at least 1-2 hours a day and drink so much water yet they still keep happening it takes me at least 5 minutes of desperately flexing my feet back and rolling round on the floor mooing like a cow to get rid of them, somebody tell me these are normal?!

Normal but hideous! Had them all the way through pg with DS. Not this time though.
A banana or 2 a day can help, it's the potassium.
Will only go when baby is out IME, sorry!

It is normal - i got them in my last pregnancy. It is agony!!!! I was advised that eating things like bananas help. Apparently the potassium helps to reduce cramps. You often get cramps because there isn't enough K+ ions in your body for the muscles to contract and release. By eating bananas, which are rich in K+, you help your muscles and can avoid cramps. Other foods also rich in potassium are potatoes, dark leady greens, white beans, apricots, fish (salmon), avocadoes, mushrooms, plain yogurt....

Hope this helps the cramp agony!

leady = leafy!

Banana on toast for breakfast it is then! Thank you hopefully that will ease it a bit I've never had muscle cramp that horrible before!

Yep, these used to wake me up in the middle of the night, I'd wake up 'shaking' my leg then dp woul get all cross with me for waking him. The baby can wake him now- he's ok with that- just gets cross when it's me waking him.

Anyway....cramps.....yes......bloody painful.

My last MW recommended drinking tonic water.

It's not the same without gin though

I took a homeopathic remedy for this last time - Mag Phos. Apparently you can try elevating your legs at night too, although that's a bit more tricky to do!

I had these - awful! I read up on every possible thing to prevent them. For last few weeks of pregnancy I was:

Drinking tonic water
Eating bananas
Eating lots of calcium
Taking magnesium supplements
Doing calf stretches before bed
Having hot water bottle on my calves in the night

Not sure which thing helped but they went away - good luck!

Bananas and lots of spinach etc. I found I was thinking about malty things quite a bit and apparently soreen malt loaf and ovaltine are good sources of minerals. Lots of dried fruit and nuts. After particularly bad nights of non sleep I found swimming really helped too!

Thanks ladies! Will definatley try all of the above did make a start on the bananas (I.e eating them daily) and just noticed as I type this that I cruelly haven't had any cramps since I posted! Must be working thank you thank you thank you!!

Oooh! I remember these! One thing I learnt was DO NOT STRETCH YOUR LEGS. It was when I was in bed, or on the sofa and stretched my legs out fully, to the point of briefly tightening the muscle, that it cramped.

Rubbing the sole of my foot helped, as did swearing profusely.

In fact, the only time I proper screamed when giving birth was during the final push when my leg cramped and caught me by surprise!

It could be sciatic nerve see a Physio who will also do acupuncture. Feel better soon OP. take care

Yep, can be related to mineral deficiency (potassium/magnesium are the usual theories). I learnt to stretch my legs with my feet back (instead of pointed IYSWIM) which helped. Along with the foods already mentioned, things calmed down.

Urgh, hideous. I get them at night when pg and I HATE bloody bananas...

Ditto all the above advice. Chickpeas are a good source of calcium (so crack open the houmous!) along with oats I believe. Also, raspberry leaf tea really helps as it is rich in calcium like minerals, a wee cup before bed should help...

Could be anaemia also so maybe up your iron and folic acid intake (and vit c too to help absorption)

I had that pretty bad.
magnesium relly helped me as did flight socks and taking in plenty of fluids.
it's shit, isn't it?

oh my god i remember waking up with these when i was expecting dd... bolt upright in bed crying out n furiously massaging my calf.... i used to get em so much i dreaded going to sleep in case it happened again