Ouch! They are VERY painful. The trick is...if you don't know already is to pull your toes up towards your shin and give the calf a really good stretch, it works for me.

I was going to ask if you were OK but saw that you were commenting so you must still be alive and just having a break :)

All the best for tomorrow.

Yowch!!!

I used to get really bad calf cramps when I was dancing - there are some that make it impossible to walk for a few days. I'm sorry to hear it!

Vee's trick about pulling your toes up towards your shin to stretch is a good one. If you can catch the cramp before it really seizes up (which sometimes is impossible when you're, well, ASLEEP), the best way to avoid it is just flexing your foot. For whatever reason pointing your toes is what does it.

I've also heard that bananas (potassium) and milk (calcium) helps with those too, but I never really saw that much of a difference.

Glad to hear you're mostly well and Foetus us ok too. 24 weeks - amazing!

"what does it" = causes the cramp. Flexing your foot helps release it.

Apparently it's a bit too early here for me to form coherent thoughts. :)

Yeah, I tried to flex the foot, toe-to-shin, but it had really seized and I just couldn't move it. I've heard that manually flexing it (ie by hand) also works, which is probably what I should have asked Mr Bea to do instead of getting ice. (??? Don't know why that seemed like the right thing at the time.)

Anyway, I did get some stretches from the yoga chick to hopefully reduce the incidence.

Bea

Ouch. I've had those before. You know it's bad when you wake up yelping and your bedmate wakes up scared.

The CDLC is the best reading on the internet. Fertiles don't know what they're missing. Luck us?

Life is so ironic.

(Maybe I shouldn't post comments before 8am.)

You know I woke up this morning with very same thing and I'm limping around, too. I had heard they would happen during pregnancy, but this was my first experience. I thought because I eat a banana and drink half a cow everyday that I was keeping them at bay, but I guess not. If you find anything that helps please let me know!

wow ouch!

Glad to hear everything is going ok otherwise.

Yuck. Poor you.

I can sometimes have several in a night and it's no longer 'just' my calves. It can be the front of my leg, the side, all the way from my toes to my hip... and it takes *forever* until they go away and they hurt like hell...

I've found bananas do help (though Kirby just told me that potatoes contain even more potassium) and, apparently zinc and magnesium help too (like if I were taking my prenatal vitamins...)

I was also not able to pull my toes up and when I was, it didn't really help much. Sometimes walking on it does.

Owwwweeee on the leg cramp. Can't say I've ever had one quite that bad.

Looking forward to your check up report.

eek! sorry to hear about your leg cramps. they can be so painful. glad to hear all else is well. good luck with the yoga and with the appointment tomorrow.

I;ve had many many calf cramps that left limping for days... One thing that helps me is to eat babanas because of the Potassium.

Sorry about the cramp! They say walk on them, but yowza!!

Glad to hear from you! Good luck at your appt tomorrow!!

Ow. Just hearing about it made me instinctively try to stretch my calf muscle. Hard to remember all those muscle fibers until they remind you they're there in such a visceral manner!

OUCH!

I'm sorry you're in such pain - I used to suffer from hideous calf cramps and the only way I could release them properly was to dig my fingers in there and physically pull the muscle back - disgusting yet effective. I had way too little salt in my diet, and the doctor decided that was the cause of them. Touch wood, it's been a fair while since I've had another.

Anyhoo, I'm so glad you checked in. I was going to have to go all stalker-like on you.

x

I have heard rolling pins can help to work out the cramp. Keep one near the bed, and if Mr. Bea won't help you work out the cramp, you can hit him with it.

I had TERRIBLE leg cramps with my first pregnancy. I was afraid to stretch in the morning because it always ended in horrible pain. Sometimes bracing my foot on the foot of the bed (basically the flexing up thing) would help, but, you're right, sometimes it's just too strong.

FYI: Sometimes eating more Potassium will help with those.

DH gets leg cramps. I imagine they are painful by the look on his face.
Did you do yoga before? How hard is antenatal yoga compared to the normal one? Is it the same?
I've beendoing taebo for a few weeks now and started doing yoga. It looks easy but if your not flexible (and i'm not) its really hard.

The leg cramps are the worst. And they come out of nowhere.