Calf cramps at 34w

[sweetangel7]

Last night I kept waking up to calf cramps/charley horses in my calf...I made myself get up and walk them off BUT when I was telling someone at work about this, they said they thought in pregnancy it meant you are deficient in something.  Has anyone else heard this?  Hopefully  I wont have them tonight because between the peeing, rolling from side to side because of the sore hips and the calf cramps I got zero sleep last night!  

[sweetangel7]

Luckily, it seems to be an isolated thing!  Fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again...so not a pleasant way to be woken up!!!

[hkenny]

magnessium! my dr told me to take a magnessium pill right before bed, and i havent had one since. i was getting them pretty frequently. i eat a banana almost daily b/c it helps heartburn and i would say i have 4 tums a day and they didnt help.if you curl your toes torward your knee they go away, seems dumb but it works!

[bryanarae]

I got these all the time with my son. Doctor just told me to eat a banana before bed, sometimes it helped and sometimes it didn't. Dr wasn't concerned about it, it's pretty normal!

[Michele, Katy, TX]

Bananas CAN help, but leg cramps during pregnancy can be normal anyway, especially at night.  What I mean is that you could very well need some extra potassium, but it could also just be a normal part of pregnancy.  And I know they hurt like crazy!!!  Make sure when you stretch to NOT point your toes.  I made that mistake when I was half asleep once.  My body shot straight up and I had to use my hands to straighten out my foot.  It was terrible!!!  OUCH!!!

[sweetangel7]

Thanks ladies...I had been eating bananas like every day but this week, I didn't buy more at the store so I only had a banana at school yesterday because that is what they were serving for snack and for the fruit with lunch.

(My school serves a different fruit or vegetable every day during the day for the kids to have a healthy snack...I love it because they give an extra for the teacher!)

I'll get more 'nans and I'll keep the tums trick in mind!

I've been eating the 'nans all the time and it is kind of funny that the cramps only started this week when I hadn't been eating them as much!

[motherofan18month]

i started having calf cramps around 32 weeks and my doc. told me to eat 2 tums nightly and it would help and it did! every now and then i wold get a pinch here and there so i would just pull out my tums and eat 2 of them, within minutes they were gone!!

[chantal21]

I had awful leg cramps as well with my first! It was also worse at night or when sleeping! I LOVE bananas...but I never noticed it helping me. =(   Maybe I needed to eat more or something. But, it seems pretty common in pregnancy, especially the further along you are.

[leighanne143]

they say you get the leg cramps because of low potassium so just increase it and bananas are full of potassium.

glad i could help.

[blueeyedtabbycat]

I had the same problem in my first two pregnancys and nobody told me about the bananas thing!! I heard about it with my 3rd pregnancy and ate at least one banana a day and never had a leg cramp!! Good thing I love bananas!!

[sweetangel7]

I love bananas!  I ate one today for my snack and I was so tempted to eat a second one with my lunch lol  I guess I should have indulged!  

[leighanne143]

yes they say you are not getting enough potassium.  eat a banana each day for a couple days and see if that helps.