Back Pain...

[Kristie]

So, my sister is having a lot of back pain.. just not used to the weight of carrying baby (apparently, baby is 2 lbs now).. she went to one massage last week and now she needs to go for another...

is there anything I can recommend to her that will help her with the back pain issues?

she also has a lot of BHC (Bracksin Hicks?) contractions last week and got a bit concerned but doctor said that's normal at her stage (week 25-26)!?

she says right now, the weirdest thing is that she doesn't feel much of the kicks anymore but she sees the movement and it weirds her out! haha

[TheWife]

Braxton Hicks are normal, nothing to worry about. Massage is about the only thing that I know of to help back pain. Trying to have the posture you can, and maybe getting a belly bra or something might help too, anything that helps support the tummy. http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.jsp?ite...&change=117

Know what's even weirder then seeing movement? When you end up accidently sleeping on your belly or too much of your side, and you wake up to find ALL of your belly on one entire side, and the other side flat. Now THAT'S weird and freaky looking!

[MQAAord]

The braxton/hicks are annoying, but harmless.

Telll her to get a belly belt. Mine is from JcPenney and it's a piece of wide white elastic that velcros in two places. It offers great support, especially in the late months. I literally couldn't clean my house or do any sort of activity without it.

Also: Sears is having an unbelievable maternity clothes sale right now. Tell everyone you know who is expecting to get their butt to Sears! Yesterday I bought three pairs of pants & three shirts for $28.

[jamauk]

Because I have large breasts to begin with, and was in an "H" cup by the time I was 8 weeks, I am quite familiar with back pain!

The back muscles are working harder now than ever and they are just really tired. What helped me A LOT was to get down on my hands and knees and just be in that crawling position for a few minutes. This let the baby hang and took all of the pressure off my back.

Although I didn't try it, I have also heard that prenatal yoga is wonderful. However, I'm not sure if you can start that so late in the pg or not. I wouldn't suggest doing anything like that without a dr's approval.

I hope this helps and tell your sister to hang in there!!

[skibum515]

an H cup? oh man...that makes me worried for when i (eventually) have kids! I also have rather large breasts to begin with and I heard that having a kid can increase them like 2 cup sizes...any truth to that? How long after the baby is born until they go back to pre-pregnancy size?

[lrcantrell]

Being pregnant makes them absolutely huge!!! What's crazy is when the baby's born and your milk comes in they actually get even bigger, just when you think they can't get any bigger, pow! there they are!!!! Good news though (in some women), after you finish nursing they tend to shrink alittle smaller then they were pre-pregnancy. for me that wasn't a good thing, they went from a B cup to a AA (didn't know there was such a thing). They're so deformed by then though it doesn't really matter anymore, they look more like cow utters than breasts.

[jamauk]

HAHAHAHA!!!!
Skibum - yes, it is a frightening thought...in fact my growing breasts were one of my first clues that I might be pg. I am normally a DD cup (well, those are even a little snug, but that's the biggest I can find w/o speical ordering them...)
After I had the baby and my milk came in, I went to a "J" cup. It was quite intimidating. My husband used to joke that I needed a pillow between my knees for lower back pain and pillow between my boobs for upper back pain!
By the time I reached my third trimest there wasn't much room left for DH in our bed!!!!!
I went back to my pre pg size shortly after I stopped nursing.

[skibum515]

how did you manage to find clothes that fit on top when your breasts were so big? Are maternity clothes made that big anyway? (i dunno, i'm only (almost) 22 but trying to find out all this info so i know what to expect when i have kids)

[MQAAord]

My normal size is 34D. They're a bit on the small side, but it's a (somewhat) easy size to find in stores so that's what I wear. I'm already in my 'big' bras from last time. I'm now starting to fill out my 36DDs. Ugh. I didn't/am not going to breastfeed, so they start deflating rather quickly once you go through the whole 'milk coming in' thing. It hurt for a few days, then it was gone, and a few weeks later I was wearing my old bras again.

Maternity clothes manufactuers say they leave 'growing room', and to order your pre-pregnancy size. Don't believe them. If you buy maternity clothes in the same size you usually are you more than likely won't be able to wear them by the end. Generally speaking, buy one size larger. This allows for your 'growth', and also for laundry shrinkage. As always, manufacturers actual sizing may vary, and try everything on before you buy.

It was several months before I was able to wear all my clothes after having Alex. But I gained 50 pounds, which was WAY too much. It was entirely my own fault, and I'm doing things different this time around. Thankfully I managed to loose almost 60 pounds before getting pregnant again, so I didn't have the 'holdover weight' some women have. I'm hoping to only gain recommended 25-35 pounds this time!

[skibum515]

Amber, if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide not to breast feed? I heard that it was supposed to be really benificial to the baby (but that might just be rumot [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] )