Yesterday morning I woke up with a hell of a charlie horse, the worst I’ve had yet. I thought, “now is a great time to practice my relaxation techniques!” No such luck. All I could do was cry and say, “ow, ow, ow! make it stop!” Attic Man massaged it out and I collapsed back to sleep. My leg is STILL sore today. So how am I going to get through contractions?
The other day we bought a St. Jude candle and we’ve been burning it while home and awake as much as we can. The baby will come when the candle has burned down, right? We’ve made it to St. Jude’s thighs already.
The thing about Charlie Horses is that nothing good comes of them and no matter what they won’t give you an epidural and put you out of your misery.
But, ummm, no. Labor is far, far worse
(In all seriousness, that sounds awful. Have you talked to your doc about them? Is your potassium okay? And no risk of clots, right?)
Ohh honey, do I ever remember those agonizing charlie horses. I got them all the time during both pregnancies. My doctor kept telling me that they were caused by vitamin deficiencies, but no matter how healthy I tried to eat- I got ‘em. I actually still get them once in a while, and when it happens I’ve found that the best cure is to stick my foot flat on an icy cold window pane! (in the event that I could not calm down enough to hobble to the freezer for an icepack.) There’s something about the cold that really relaxes muscles, and fast.
Don’t worry about ‘handling’ labor. I know you will do beautifully.
i had ‘em too. really bad towards the end. i’d roll over and try to pound the living daylights out of my calves, trying to reach! and then i learned to just sort of stretch through them, flexing really slow. hope you find a solution soon–its agonizing!
you’ll be a champ through labor.
When a charlie horse strikes you, flex your toes. It will totally go against everything your body is telling. Of course, all your body is saying is “Ow! Ow! Ow! Make it stop!” But really, the toe flexing works. Do it slowly. And yes, contractions hurt way more. But you get a baby out of contractions. You get nothing out of a charlie horse.
Oh yeah, eat bananas. (That’s just my general advice for about every leg-related ailment. I think bananas are a wonderfood.)