Retaining a lot of water - I need REALLY HONEST opinions here

coasterqueen wrote: Okay, I barely retained water or had swelling with my first pg. I mean, yeah my face got a bit poofy and such but I never had swelling in my hands or feet to speak of.

This time around I'm swelling/retaining water very very badly. I mean it's not that bad because my doctor isn't concerned but I am and honestly Dh is too. I can't wear my wedding ring. I can't even get socks on because my feet are soooooo fat. Seriously, I broke the elastic on a pair of socks one time putting them on because my feet/ankles are so fat.

I've gained 20 more pounds this pg too. No matter how fat I really got before or when I was pg before my calves always stayed skinny. With this pregnancy my calves are SERIOUSLY huge and so are my ankles. I'm so serious, I'm not exaggerating. My butt has tripled in size too.

All of this is easy for me to see because I went from being FAT to skinny after 1st pg and now I'm seriously FATTER.

I really hope and Dh really thinks that I have SERIOUS water weight going on here and he thinks it'll go away right after birth.

Can someone please give me a very very honest opinion as to whether it'll just go away right after birth or will I have to work the water weight off just as much as all the fat? Does this make sense? Please, please don't say "oh you don't look fat, etc, etc, etc" because I really need an honest answer here. I'm feeling like it's going to be so much harder this time around to lose the weight and it would be really nice to know that if most of this is water weight that it WILL come off super super fast.

kit_kats_mom replied: water weight should come off after the first couple of weeks. Remember the night sweats for the first few weeks after giving birth to Kylie? That's what you were losing although it may not have been in the same quantities.

Drink lots of fluids and cut out salt.

coasterqueen replied:
OMG I do remember the night sweats now you mention it. I totally forget, well I hope they do the trick. Thanks. And thanks for the reminder on cutting out salt, I need to remember that.

mummy2girls replied: Oh Karen I know exactly what you are feeling. with Jordan I gained so much water retention. I mean i went into the hospital at 200lbs and after having him i was down to 170. And then after having jordan it took a few days for my swelling and water retention to start to go away. I did start the gym about 1 month after losing jordan and it took only about 5 months to get down to 150lbs. So i am going to show this god awful pic of me right after having jordan...here i was still swelled by the water retention... im trying to find one of me after i lost it but i just cant seem to find it...UGH!

MommyToAshley replied: You were lucky you didn't experience water retention with Kylie. I swelled up the last two weeks before I had Ashley. I was sad that I couldn't wear my rings too. I agree with cut the salt and drink lots of water. As for your feet, elevate them whenever you can. It will help you to see your ankles again, I promise. And, the water weight will come off quickly, don't worry about that.

Take it easy and hang in there, you don't have much longer!

aspenblue1 replied: The water weight will come off. I swelled horrible with Isabella I couldnt wear any of my shoes and it hurt to walk on my feet because they were so swollen.

MyBlueEyedBabies replied: Add lemon juice to your water. My mom's dr. kept asking her what her trick was. She NEVER swelled with any of us. SHe wore her wedding rings into the hospital. My sister didn't believe it but when she started drinking lemon water she was able to wear her shoes again with in 2 days. I swear it works really well

A&A'smommy replied: OMG I did that with Alyssa my calves, feet, hands arms EVERYTHING got bigger especially my face from water retention anyway it went down a considerable amout in the first couple week but the thing I noticed was like two days after I had her my mom, her best friend and my best friend were all there and I took my socks off and exclaimed REALLY loudly that i had feet I actually said "I HAVE NORMAL FEET" lol (i'm kinda tired right now just in case this doesn't make sense). I didn't matter how much water I drank or didn't drink I still gained a lot of water weight and other weight too.

moped replied: I swear it will go away - PROMISE...........if you want I could post a picture of my feet - you would die at how big there were, 2 weeks after I had him it went away and I am smaller now than I have ever been.................

Littlejojames replied: OMG Karen your a mind reader!

I was sat last night looking down at my feet after coming home from work and taking my trainers and socks off and thought "where the hell have my ankles gone?" they seemed to have blended in with the rest of my legs apart from the rings from where my socks had been all day you would not have know i have ankles.

Its that bad i get so embarrassed if anyone comes around and you can see them.

I have also been retaining loads of fluid in my knees??? God knows how this has happened but i feel like i swish when i walk.

mammag replied: Okay, I'm going to be brave and post these just to give you hope.

This is right after I had him. I look like you could pop me with a needle. I was sooo swollen and icky!

Oops wrong one....here's the right one.

mammag replied: And now at 4 mos......

Water retention came off pretty quickly after (a couple of weeks I'd say). Now I just have to lose the fat I'm holding in the middle.

Boys r us replied: Karen, I was the sameway with Braedon! I gained 80 pounds! But within a week of having him, I lost 40 of it! The last 40 hasn't been so forgiving!

Cut out salt, sodas(even diet b/c they also have high sodium count and will cause water retention), cut out beef and cheese too. That's why my OB told me in the last month of pg when I ballooned up!

coasterqueen replied: You ladies are making a pregnant woman cry. You don't know how much it means to me for you to all be honest with me and even share your pictures. Thanks so much. I'm hoping so much that a lot of this IS water retention and it will go away quickly . I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring for almost 2 months now .

Anyways, now I have hope. Thank you all very very much.

moped replied: I will be brave too - here is a pic of my feet after I had Jack and they were like that about 3 weeks before too

YIKES

Littlejojames replied:

Oh you could be my foot/ankle double.....

Craig calls then Kankles at the min as my ankles look like my knees

Kaitlin'smom replied: Oh I had horible swelling the last month, my legs were so discusting, I was thankful it ws winter so I could wear pants, I could not get any kind of shoes on I had to wear sandles with socks in the winter, I looked reduciouls. DH saw my leg when I went to0 evevate them on him during class and he was so schock and it made me feel so horrible, then they got worse at christmas and he was like wow loog how huge they are I told him to shut up I was so emabrressed by them.

But as others said drink tons of water thats how I relieved the pressure feeling, course then I was peeing ALL the time, and cut the salt out as much as possible. It did take a couple weeks but that went away and I was left with 20lbs of the PG to loose, I think over all I gained about 40lbs and I would say a good 10 was water weight.

So all in all yes I bet you feel horrible and FAT but your PG and it will (most) come off very quicly.

BIG HUGS

coasterqueen replied:
That's about what mine look now, but I don't have the pretty toe nail polish on. Maybe I should do that, maybe it would make me feel better.

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Karen I had HORRIBLE swelling. I know I posted about it here. My feet were tripled in size. They looked like club feet. I couldn't wear shoes, rings, socks and they HURT!! My doctor checked the protein in my urine and there was some, but my BP was always really good so he wasnt' concerned.

Anyway, after I had Ethan the nurse told me that the swelling would go away in 2 weeks. 2 weeks later I had my skinny feet and fingers back. My eyes were also puffy and my face was fat, but that all went away, too. I'm still working on the pudgy stomach, though.

You will be okay. I didn't have swelling with Maddie, either so it was a shock when I got so big and puffy with Ethan.

kimberley replied: i agree with everyone... water weight comes off very fast . i think i lost 30lbs in a week after i had Jacob (gained about 60lbs with him ). something i wanted to warn you about tho... if you get an epi, you might experience swelling a couple of days after birth. no joke, i had elephant hands and feet the next day and was in tears, but it went away quickly... and didn't happen after the other two pg's. i think they gave me lower doses those times and my labor's were much shorter (5hrs) with James and Jade. i am sure it will come right off after Meagan.

angelhair replied: I know what you mean. I went from having not having a but to but galore. the water wieght should come off easier then other wieght. you have more water in your system and fluid due to increased blood vuolume as well as the flluid from the embronic sac. I do a twenty minute low arobic tape and it makes me feel better . I do not know if you are psycially up to that or not but they have some excellent low impact tapes for pregnant women now on vhs that you can do in your home. hang in there!!! love dee

AshleyRose replied: Karen,

The water weight WILL come off quick just like everyone else said so don't worry. I was 176 when I went in to deliver (pre pregnancy weight was 112). Two days after I delivered I lost 15 pounds! Now I am down to 147 after one month postpartum. I am going to start going to the gym real soon too to help shed off those pounds. But I was EXTREMELY swollen too. The ankles, hands (couldn't wear rings either), and face! I'll be REALLY brave as well...

Below is me after delivery...

AshleyRose replied: Here is me the other day. and this is JUST the face swelling... i don't have pics of the rest of me. Sorry that it isn't upright.. photo bucket wont work with rotating it...