Restless legs

[LolaStarr]

Someone PLEASE give me some tips on how to stop restless legs! I'm 35+2 and it's driving me absolutely mad! It's worst when I'm in bed at night, it's actually stopping me from sleeping. I only drink one cup of tea a day so can't be caused by caffeine!

I just found that keeping my legs as cool as possible helped, I used to put them in cool water at night or get my DH to give me a foot rub. There isn't a lot you can do, you have my sympathy, it's a shit side effect of pregnancy, I had it pre pregnancy occasionally but the last trimester it was constant. It did stop once my DD was born though.

Sounds strange but for me having one leg in and one out of the duvet seemed to help

My midwife advised drinking a lots of tonic water, although I'm not sure if it works cos I hate tonic water!

Keep cooler. Try Paracetamol half an hour before you go to bed. Ask to have your iron levels checked.
Drove me crackers.

It's awful isn't it. I wasn't far from crying last night I was so frustrated with it (and the fact that my darling 3 year old wouldn't sleep and kept shouting pretty much all night didn't help!) I'll try all your suggestions, thank you!

I started taking magnesium and calcium and it stopped. Try magnesium

Or have a bath with some epsom salts, they have magnesium and it is absorbed through your skin

Oh will definitely try that evergreen, thank you!

I had this really badly last pregnancy. A banana every day for the potassium, iron tablets (floradix was recommended to me) and you can get magnesium oil from Holland and barretts to rub into your legs.

I tried all three and after about four days it had disappeared. It was waking me up multiple times every night prior to that

I found having a walk in the evening helped or do an excercise where you stand still then go up onto the balls of your feet slowly then lower back down. Do it at least 20 times. It starts to make your calves and bottom ache but it gets the circulation going.

Have a banana before bed...!!

I have such bad restless legs that I've sobbed to my dh at 1am several times during my pregnancy. Nothing seems to help completely but the exercise positivity suggests is probably the best thing for the middle of the night when it hits. I have to do it around 40 or 50 times and clench my thigh/bum muscles as much as possible but sometimes it provides enough relief that I can sleep before it comes back.

Some things to do before bed which have sometimes helped are baths, leg rubs from dh (massaging the thighs as well, even if the restlessness is in your lower legs seems to help) sleeping with my feet up on a pile of pillows and keeping the room and my legs quite cool.

Try to avoid too much sitting before bed (particularly sitting with your feet up) and don't sit reading or anything in bed before sleep as it encourages the restlessness to start earlier.