I am almost 24 months pregnant now and having terrible sciatic nerve pain that runs down my leg to my knee. When this happens, I can barely walk. It comes and goes, but mostly stays. On top of that, I have restless legs when I want to relax. Is there any exercises I can do to relieve the pain from the sciatic, and exercises I can do to for the restless legs? Im not sure which one will drive me crazy first! MY Physicain prescribed Tylenol #3, but It doesn't help the pain, it just makes me weirded out and awake. Please, I will take any suggestion and give it a shot.
Chas
I would like to take the time to thank you all so much for the advice you have given me on the restless legs and sciatic nerve pain. I have taken many suggestions and are going to try them. The bar of soap idea is definately one I will try. I also think Physical therapy or a Chiropractor may help.
I cannot believe how different this pregnancy is from my first. My biggest worry was morning sickness, now I have many aches and pains with this one. I hope this means this baby is going to be a perfect little angel since he's put mommy through the ringer.
Thanks again, and I am sure I will have many more questions to ask, as I am only in my 24th week, and my breasts already have a slow leak....????? This is normal right????
lol
Have you tried a chiropractor? I recommend Dr. Chandra Wright of Crown Point Chiropractic ###-###-####. She is also pregmant so is likely to understand what you are feeling, where and why. She and her husband have been very helpful to both my husband and I and we have learned to trust her advice. Give them a call. I think the first visit or evaluation is free.
M. C
Waxhaw
Hi, C.
I am 16 weeks pregnant and have also been experiencing restless legs. Its very uncomfortable! I've heard that stretching helps. They have a Pregancy Yoga class that is offered at Presbyterian Hosspital Matthews. I was thinking of joining that to help with the restless legs. Just thought that I would let you know about that. Hope it gets better!
C.,
I had the same problem towards the end of my pregnancy. I had to lay on the opposite side of where the pain was and poke and prod at the baby to get her to move off the nerve. you can try putting a bag of frozen veggies, or anything cold, on the side of your belly you want the baby to move away from too. Once I got the baby to move off that side, lots of stretching and exercise helped. Be patient though... sometimes it took her all day to move.
K. D
If you can, look into a chiropractor. I have that same problem but I didn't see a chiropractor. I wish I had though because a friend of mine who was pregnant at the same time and had the same problem told me it did wonders for her. Hope that helps, I know that it's miserable.
I had the same problem with sciatic pain at about the same time in my last pregnancy. The solution I found was wearing one of those elastic belts to help support my tummy and getting a massage! I felt immediate relief! It also helps to spend a little time each day on your hands and knees, alternate between arching your back while you do this and then letting it sag, this will give your baby a little more room to stretch and hopefully find a better position for you!
Chiropractor, Chiropractor, Chiropractor....
I think that is all that is going to help you. :(
I had the same thing when I was preggo with #2. It would take me about 30 minutes to get to the standing position when I would wake up in the morning.
I hope that you get to feeling better soon.
C. - i am currently in school for physical therapist assistant and we were just discussing the sciatic nerve. i'll ask my teacher tomorrow and see if she has any suggestions.
I would try to avoid taking the medicine if you can. I also would recommend taking a prenatal yoga class. This really helped me when I was pregnant with my son. There are a lot of good exercises they can give you to help with your sciatic nerve. When I go to my regular yoga class, I will see if they can show me an exercise that is good for that and will email you. I wish I could remember the one that really helped when I took prenatal yoga. I also would definitely go see a Chiropractor. The Chiroprator will be able to put things back in place. I know my friend had the same issue really bad and the Chiropractor really saved her a lot of pain, especially at the end of her pregnany. I hope this helps and I will send you an update if I can find the exercise out.
Jen
I've broken my tailbone twice and as a result suffer from constant sciatic problems. Anti-inflamatories work best for me, but, being pregnant I don't think you'd be able to take them, same with the heating pad. Talk to your ob/gyn about stretches and excersizes you can do.
I had the same thing with my third child. My doctors sent me to PT. It was great, I wish I still had the paper work of the exercises they gave. So check with your doctor and I bet they can give you some excercises.
I had terrible sciatic pain, but it was really because my pelvis/back was out of alignment. I went to physical therapy, and they did massage and heat therapy, but said there wasn't much they could do for me until I had the baby. Sorry, I wish I could tell you something better.
A.
C.,
I went on line for restless legs and a home remedy was to put a bar of soap under your thigh(i used a bar that was new) and believe it or not,it helped relax my leggs! I have had problems with the nerve too and my mom got a machine from her doctor and it sends electric pulses to your nerve and it has helped me also. I don't know what the machine is called, and i'm not sure if you should or can use it while pregnant, but your nerve will still give you problems after the baby and i think its because of the extra weight you gain so if i find out what it's called,maybe you can ask your doc about it.
As far as your sciatic nerve, the baby is probably laying on it, and movement on your part will help the baby to relocate and therefore get off of this nerve. There may not be much you can do to stop this, and a lot of women have trouble with it during pregnancy. I know as the baby gets bigger it could get better or worse depending on where they decide to reside. Exercise, especially walking will help both conditions. There is a website called www.nativeremedies.com and they sell a product called leg calm. It has all nature ingredients and can help calm your legs. It is for use during pregnancy so there shouldn't be a problem with it. I would stay away from anything with caffeine in it as this can aggrevate RLS. Also RLS can indicate a deficit in your magnesium and iron levels so taking these supplements may help as well, and they are both in the leg calm product. I wish you the best.
I too had Restless Legs during my pregnancy. I found that regular exercise, lots of walking and lots of water helped. The closer I got to full term, the worse it got - good luck.
Hi, I am just about to deliver my newest baby, and had a lot of that trouble myself for a while. I swear, I picked up a prenatal yoga dvd at Target and it changed my whole pregnancy. It is 10 minutes in the morning and 30 before bed, or probably the other way around (pregnant brain no longer works!!), that made the biggest difference in the world. If I skipped it for even one day I could tell. Once I started doing yoga, which I didn't do before I was pregnant, my sciatica was greatly reduced and restless legs calmed. The restless legs still come back now and then, and there's this one yoga thing that totally fixes it in the middle of the night and I do it in the bed. It tells you on the dvd what positions help which problems, and that helped a lot. I hope this helps you, I could not believe the difference it made to me!!
Definitely go see a chiropractor. My husband has and is still helping many pregnant women throughout their pregnancies. With regular adjustments it could also help during your delivery. I also did prenatal yoga which was wonderful.
K.
Hello I to had the same pain with with third child. I found that no pain meds really helped without either making me to tired or too crazy but I did find that sitting with a heating pad under you a few times a day did help relieve some of the pain.
I would try cold packs 15 minutes at a time through out the day for the Sciatic Nerve. I have that and the only thing that help is Prozac. Plus it makes me feel better but Im certainly not pregnant or likely to get that way. <Grandma>
I know for sure for restless leg eat nuts...Any kind of nuts!
I purchase mixed nuts because I love cashew and dont know when to stop. Nuts will stop the restless leg. You can eat them all day or an hour before bed.....It's proven to work!I actually saw this on I think it was 60 minutes....It works so good...
HI! I can't say I went to a chiropractor but I did walk alot and stretch as far as I could stand it. I never had the rest less legs but the walking, lots of water and stretching helped due to me moving causing my son to move off the nerve. GOOD LUCK!
