I am now 19 weeks pregnant. I have been getting leg cramps just about every night for the past 3 or 4 weeks. I talked to my doctor about adding more vitamins to my diet or doing something else to prevent the leg cramps. She said my prenatal vitamins should provide me with everything I need and the only thing to do for my leg cramps is to get off my feet.
Getting off my feet is almost impossible. I am student teaching this semester. Right now I am with kindergarten. I have to be on my feet most of the day when I have 17 little 5 year olds running around.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do for these leg cramps? Some nights they are mild, but some nights they are so bad that my leg is sore the next day. I am so tired of these cramps that wake me up in the middle of the night. Should I add more vitamins? Or is there something else I can do? Any advice would be appreciated!

I took an extra potassium supplement when I was having sever leg cramps and it worked.

One thing that always helped me with leg cramps while I was getting ready to go to sleep was to lay on my side and get a big fluffy pillow and put it between my knees. Sometimes I even used two pillows. Have you tried taking any Tylenol to see if it may help? You are allowed Tylenol.

Dear Bekah, Please be sure to talk to your doctor before taking anyone else's advise. I was always told that leg cramps are a sign of low potassium. Eat a banana everyday. Surely banana's wouldn't hurt. Personally I couldn't eat banana's when I was pregnant. They gave me terrible gas pains. That's just my case. They may not do that to you. Good Luck, CynthiaB

Try 4-6 dried apricots a day. Will not hurt you or your baby and give a high level of potassium. It really does the trick for me. You might start with 8 then when relief occurs (and it will) reduce the intake by one a week until you get to a maintenance number of apricots.

For awhile I had the worst back pains and leg cramps. I felt as if I had run a marathon. It is truly annoying. I really know how you feel, I was waking up every night and hardly slept. So I started walking for 30-40 minutes in the evening and started doing yoga. For the past three weeks I haven't had any leg cramps or back pains since I started that. But since you have 17 5 year olds, just try to stretch and stretch somemore before you work, after work, or before you go to bed. Also try a nice warm bath before bed that way your muscles are relaxed.

Leg cramps in pregnancy can be caused by many things. You see, you have decreased venous blood flow to your lower extremities, so this can be a causative factor, low potassium, HIGH calcium, etc.

If your doctor feels that you are on your feet too much it is imperative that you listen to his advice as he knows your particular history better than we do. You really should take his advice before he puts you on bed rest.

If it is due to poor venous blood flow, this could be detrimental to the health of your baby.

I have them it my left leg at lest one a week sometimes more often. They wake me up at night. Stretch (flex) your leg muscles before going to bed. It helps me when I do it.