is the difference between normal ankle/feet swelling and worrying swelling obvious?

[flipflopsonfifthavenue]

I'm 19wks pg and last night noticed that my ankles were very swollen. I could compress the skin on the inside of my ankles and see a finger print for several seconds. It has been very hot recently and am commuting on the tube which isn't helping things. They're a little better this morning, but still not as they should be. This is DC2 and I had a little bit of swelling with DS but that was a lot closer to my due date and only lasted a day or two.

I also happened to read on my weekly pregnancy app thing that you can start to get swollen ankles, hands and face around this time, so it all seems normal, but to keep an eye on it as it can be dangerous - presumably preeclampsia being the biggest worry.

Would it be obvious when swelling became something to get checked out? The NHS website talks about sudden swelling being dangerous. But how sudden is sudden, and how swollen is swollen?

Got my 20wk scan/apt next Friday so will mention it to midwife.

I think there are other symptoms of pre-eclampsia that they consider more serious eg high blood pressure, protein in urine, headaches, visual disturbances, epi gastric pain.

I had PE with my first pregnancy, and when I saw the midwife the other day (currently 16 weeks) I asked her about swelling as I swelled quite badly last time, and she said not to worry too much about it as long as it's not associated with any of the above symptoms. She said that swelling, particularly later in the day and that goes down again after you put your feet up for a bit, is pretty normal.

Don't wait until next week, call your midwife or gp asap. They'll just test your urine and BP to make sure all is ok, which it probably is, but I waited a few days and got soundly told off! It's almost certainly just normal swelling, I have ankles like the Incredible Hulk, but you can't know for certain. Best to get checked.

I had PE with dd1, and my swelling was fairly minor, I hadn't really noticed but my consultant thought my face looked puffy, and when he mentioned it I could see that it did. My eyes were a bit puffy, and my ankles too. But then my ankles puff in hot weather even when not pregnant, if I have been standing about a lot. Get your urine dipped, and maybe ask for some dipsticks to take home to keep an eye on it. And your bp, as the poster above says. I imagine it will be just the hot weather, but it is something that needs checking right away.

Agree with the others about getting checked out but just to say my GP last week asked if I ever had ankle swelling that didn't go down overnight (or after putting them up for some time). Seems like that might be a key way of telling the difference.