Elephant legs

[Nika11]

It seems like me ankles are as big as my knees! All the water is going to my legs and feet. I've tried everything to get them to get the swelling down but I feel like I have to constantly have my feet up which is not good for my back. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Tlove]

I was told it's normal in third trimester and basically live with it! My midwife said some women swell right up to their thighs. The heat isn't helping. I do find it's better when I drink lots of water and avoid too much salt because it's due to water retention. I tried flight socks as well, which work to some degree but got too tight after a while and socks are a challenge to get on anyway! Getting up and moving around a bit helps with the circulation too.

The midwife did check my bp and urine though, in case it was anything more than just swelling. I think it can be a sign of pre eclampsia if you have other symptoms.

I know my reply isn't very helpful but you're not alone and only a few weeks left now!

[KellyTrip in reply to Tlove]

yep! I agree with tlove!

[SC94]

Make sure you get your bp and urine tested just as a precaution. I've had preeclampsia twice.. Do you have any other symptoms or do you think it's normal swelling? Honestly there's not much you can do other than keeping feet up. I hated having to do it but I noticed I swelled more in the night so I kept my feet up on pillows in the night and that seemed to help. It will go down but make sure it's not to tight for your skin.. I swelled up my skin was about to start cracking. I hope this helps and I'm sorry I can't offer much advice but it will get better it's just a horrible part of being pregnant!!

[Hidden]

Drink lots of water. I swelled up much more with my first than my second and I think I was much better at drinking second time round.

[Kernishp]

If you fancy treating yourself - then a pregnancy massage, with a therapist who knows what they're doing, can work wonders. My feet swelled from a 4.5 to a size 7 during pregnancy, I had a massage which reduced them back to a 5 for about 2 weeks.

[Nika11]

So it turned out it was pre eclampsia, a very severe case of it too. Thought Id better reply to my own post as want to warn others about making sure they get things like these checked. I had one of those cases where I didn't have many symptoms and my midwife checkups, which were only a week before went well. My kidneys started acting strange. I would drink copious amounts of water and not a lot of would be passed through to urination. The deal clencher was the upper abdominsl pain.

[Tlove in reply to Nika11]

Oh gosh, thanks for the update! That's quite scary, was your blood pressure and urine ok? These seem to be the only extra checks they make for pre-eclampsia when I go to my appointments.

Glad you got a diagnosis and hope they are monitoring you more closely.

[Nika11]

Yes, it turned out to be so severe they had to deliver the babies early. They are ok now, the only strange thing was I had hardly any symptoms. The blood pressure just shot up quite quickly.

[Tlove in reply to Nika11]

Congratulations!! Pre-eclampsia scares me a little, so glad you got checked out and had a good outcome. Did you have twins? I'm 36+3 with twins, getting my induction date today!