Fluid retention

Rest is the best thing (with your legs up), and strangely enough, drink lots of water is what I was told. But lots and lots of rest!!

Does feet up work when its just your belly? Im sure I can do it, if I sit in the wendy house.

mmm salt - thats hard to do - im so a savory girl!

Is it common to get this so early in pregnancy, I was huge and very puffy with Milla , but it was after about 32 weeks from memory.

To some extent quite likely! But Im not gassy, and have cut out bread cause I thought the same thing and rather than getting better its got worse. Like we had pizza on saturday and I looked 8 months pregnant so what i eat does play a part in it.

Different for each person. The golden rule is 8C a day but if I have more than 4, I get really light headed and it throws my electrolytes out. From memory, when pregnant, you're meant to have an extra glass or 2 on top of what you normally have (though maybe more since it's yucky Auckland summer)? Good question for the MW!

Hiya Raspberry Jam, I have been getting terrible fluid retention too - esp with exercise. It got so bad the other day when I was out walking that I lie down with my feet up a bank & send DH to get car to pick me up :-( I didn't realise how painful it could be to have legs that were so bloated. I was going to make a GP appt to see what could be done, but my MW told me not to bother, and apparently that much fluid retention is 'normal' in PG.

What I have found to help - drinking lots of water - it seems to flush the system out, and keep the fluid moving rather than retaining. Also I have actually increased my salt intake and found this helped. And I have gone back to the gym,after the first hard week I found that the exercise did help, and now feeling a lot better.

I hope that made sense, sorry for the waffle :-)

Thanks squoggs - I did actually reply to you earlier but I lost the post and my monster was in perfect monster form today so I had to wait to get back on here.

Thats all good - expcept for increasing your salt intake ??
I am going to start swimming as soon as DH changes his hours to start a little later which may not be til march but will be good then anyway.
And yeah the lots of water thing - I googled and apparently I could be holding on to water if Im not drinking enough - just means a week or so of extra peeing ( which is not that exciting when your already peeing for africa!) until your body gets used to it
Apparently you can drink too much??
Will ask my midwife about that one - Im sure Id be sick if I tried to get too much in there
Also, as Flissty suggested, some of it could be bloating - so a gentle increase in fibre may also help

Sounds like your on the same page 0mrs0ana0

Edited by Raspberryjam

If you drink too much water you can get low in sodium, which is why in hospital if you have low sodium you get put on a fluid restriction usually 1-1.5 litres depending on your levels.

I dont think there would be much that could be done about bloating of the tummy- though would be keen to hear what your midwife says

Ah, so maybe thats why I seem so massive by the end of the day (just in my belly too). I am terrible with drinking water, must do better. I read that in summer us preggo mums should be drinking between 8 and 10cups a day, I couldn't do that

I had wicked fluid retention too, from about 20 weeks or so. My Ob/Gyn suggested upping my protein intake as well as fluids. And definitely LOTS of rest. An hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon with your feet up. I thought I was being a lazy ar$e and resting plenty but ended up on bed rest at 31 weeks (completely unrelated to the fluid thing) and my ankles actually went back to normal    So I clearly *hadn't* been resting enough (put that in your pipe and smoke it MIL!!!!)