A few weeks back, the swelling monsters descended on my poor feet. Well, more specifically, on my poor left foot and ankle. Out of the blue it ballooned up to 3 times its normal size, and with the swelling came pain. I was not a happy camper, but was fortunate that Chicago was having a mini heatwave which allowed me to wear flip flops.
I let my midwife know about the swelling at my next appointment, and she let said that Baby H was leaning reaaaallly far to the left, therefore putting a lot of pressure on my left side and causing the swelling on just my left side. She gave me some yoga poses to try to help move the baby more toward the center and made some other suggestions to help with the swelling. Fortunately, after another week or so baby shifted and my left ankle appeared again! Yay! I promised myself that I would never take my ankles for granted again and enjoyed having a normal foot again.
I celebrated a little too quickly. As of this week, the swelling has returned in full force… on my left and right side!
This picture doesn’t do the swelling justice. My ankles definitely have rolls and the tops of my feet are like huge domes. What makes matters worse is that it’s gotten chilly here again so flip flops are out of the question for my commute to and from work. So my feet are shoved into flats that are just way too small, putting more and more pressure on my feet. Hmph.
Fortunately, there are quite a few things you can do to try and relieve the situation and shoo away the swelling monsters!
- Keep your feet elevated while sitting (especially if you sit at a desk all day)
- At least 1-2 times a day, elevate your feet above your heart
- Enlist your significant other to massage your feet, pushing the fluid up toward your heart
- Take a bath or just soak your feet in some hot water
- Wear compression socks
- Try laying on your left side, which helps improve your circulation
- Drink a lot of water
- Avoid super salty foods
You have to play around a bit to see what will work well for you. I have a friend right now who swears by her compression socks. I picked up a pair, and while my feet felt more comfortable when I had them on, they didn’t actually make the swelling go down. I also drink a lot of water already and don’t have a super salty diet, so there’s nothing I can really change in that regard. I can’t comfortably sit with my feet elevated at work because it makes my back hurt, but I do try and elevate them in the evenings at home.
What has been helping me the most are massages from Mr. H (he’s a trooper!), as well as heat in any way, shape or form. Sometimes at night I’ll put a heating pad on my feet just to help with circulation. Also, you can combine pampering with swelling relief! I’ve found that getting a pedicure is fantastic because you get to stick your feet into hot water and then, of course, you leave with pretty toes. It’s a win-win as long as you don’t mind a stranger interacting with your super swollen tootsies.
I know in the long run that as far as pregnancy symptoms go, this is definitely not one of the worst ones to have. I’ll survive and have at least figured out how to keep the discomfort at a manageable level. But I will be super duper excited when the swelling is no more and I can comfortably wear shoes!
If you’ve experienced swelling during pregnancy, how have you dealt with the discomfort?
clementine / 878 posts
I could have written this! In the past week, I’ve puffed up (feet, hands AND face). Luckily my BP is still okay, so it’s just fluid retention and not something more serious.
It’s 40 degrees out today and I’m wearing flip flops – mainly because I couldn’t get my feet in anything else. As long as there’s an open lane at my gym, I’m going for a swim tonight to see if that helps. And last night I sat with my feet elevated for 2 hours and managed to (briefly) see my ankle bones again.
My main issue is how tender my feet feel – I expected swelling, but for some reason I didn’t think it would hurt.
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
@Goldilocks1107: Yes, what’s with the pain?! The tops of my feet hurt so much, something I never expected! Hope you manage to find some relief. Mine have gotten better in the past couple of days but sitting at a desk all day in shoes that are just a little too small does not help things!
coffee bean / 27 posts
So, I had pretty bad swelling and it turned out to be a sign of HELLP syndrome I had developed. One day my feet were super swollen and I went to my Dr. and they did some tests- two days later they induced me and I had a baby four weeks early! It’s one of those symptoms I hope I don’t have in my next pregnancy:/
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
@mamachamp: Oh wow! Glad everything turned out in the end.
I should have included more strongly in my post that, obviously, work with your care provider to make sure it’s not something more than normal water retention!
cherry / 146 posts
swimming and keeping my feet elevated significantly reduced the swelling in my feet. wearing properly fitted sandals and shoes (think ugly but comfortable) also took away the pain away in my pelvic area and knees.
blogger / coconut / 8306 posts
Hang in there! Swollen feet were never my favorite part of pregnancy, either. Embrace the foot massages from Mr. H!!
kiwi / 537 posts
Your picture is exactly what my feet looked like on from 4 months on, my BP always was good so my OB was never overly concerned. So uncomfortable and PAINFUL!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Ah, swollen feet. I really thought I would get away with not getting them…until I flew in my third trimester. Holy elephant feet and ankles! I know it doesn’t seem like there is much you can do other than what you’ve posted but just think – baby H will be here before you know it and they’ll finally go back to their normal size.
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
Oh no, bringing back bad memories! I was pregnant in the Florida summer heat so it got bad. If I stayed off of my feet it helped a lot, but the second I stood up they were huge again. And FYI, I thought when LO popped out my feet would magically go back to normal. It took about a week though.
guest
38 weeks and swollen, too. Its so strange when the top of the foot looks so puffy. I’ve found that wearing athletic tennis shoes with socks helps stave off the swelling, even just sitting at my work desk all day. I’ve been able to see ankles again! Much better than sandals or flats for me. I think it must be a combination of the compression and support.
grapefruit / 4817 posts
I’m 38 weeks today and have been battling this for a month now. It is horrible. Why did no one tell me how painful it would be? I have really skinny ankles and feet naturally, so I feel absolutely huge with ankle rolls. Swelling is definitely one of the worst symptoms I’ve had this far!
squash / 13199 posts
I had this really badly at 34 weeks and for me drinking lots of water and cutting down my sodium intake made a drastic difference and the swelling went right down..
honeydew / 7968 posts
I didn’t have swelling during pregnancy, but got it after my csec. Used compression socks and kept my feet elevated. Went down after 2 days or so…