Pounding heart @ 35wks??

[sunshine's mama]

Ugh..it's 430 am and I'm wide awake bc i can't breathe.....

It got better for a bit after a short shoulder massage and yet here I am almost a week later and it's worse than it was before...

It's happening mainly at night now when I am pretty relaxed...

I lay my head on my pillow and I can hear my heart pounding in my ear...it pounds hard for a few beats, pauses and starts all over again....Even sitting straight up isn't fixing it....

I need to get some sleep.....as I am exhausted....

I tried some deep belly breathing but it made my heart race faster.....

I know I have some extra blood now so I am not worried about that...

I would've called the on call person for my practice but it's an MD on call tonight and not a MW and it's the one MD in the practice I can't stand....He's short, curt and just plain.....: and slow to get back to ppl.....

So I thought I would try here..

My BP this entire pregnancy has been around 117-120 over 65/70.....

I had HG this pregnancy and after losing alot of weight, I've gained about 5lbs according to the scale (I know I have gained more than that bc of the water, blood etc.....so I prolly lost more than we think) which is more than likely all baby...

Could that be the issue....since I am all baby??? My stomach always feels pretty hard, like a BH so when the BH do show up, it's extra tight feeling to me this time.....

I started dilating with dd 3 years ago around this time and was 2cm and 80% and by the time I was 37wks I was 5cm and 90% and stayed that way until almost 42wks.....

I just need to get to sleep......

Any suggestions/ideas until I can get to the ER for them to tell me, "yeah, you're 35wks pregnant.....you're fine, go home...."......kwim?

TIA

[mwherbs]

are you anemic?
and are you eating protein throughout the day?

[olive&pimiento]

Hi Sunshine
How are you doing? I think it's a good idea to give your care providers a call. I realize I'm responding many hours later and perhaps you have already, but in case not, I do think this warrents a call. Nobody is going to say you are just pregnant if this is keeping you up at night. Keep us posted...

[Sweeney]

You should give your care provider a heads up about this. If it's worrying you this bad then they need to know.

I went through something similar in both my pregnancies. I'm not sure if it's what you have, but your experience does sound like mine.
In my last 10 weeks of pregnancy I started to hear and feel my heart beating which was odd. But every so often my heart would kinda flutter or twitch, and then there would be a pause. I spent a lot of time laying awake at night wondering what I would do if it didn't start up again. My care providers weren't that concerned about it- but I was really freaked out. They offered to send me for some kind of stress heart test or the senior midwife suggested I cut out dairy. She'd seen it help other women who complained about the same thing. I stopped all dairy and almost immediaterly it went away.

My current theory is that my body has a really hard time absorbing calcium. ESPECIALLY if it come from a dairy source. There are different forms of calcium you can supplement with- some are more readily absorbed then others and there are some that are present in dairy and there are others that are not. I supplemented with a non-dairy source of calcium and was fine.

It was scary for me- I hope this passes quickly and well for you!

[AngelaB]

When I had thyroid issues I had the heart pounding thing and I found that calcium helped with the heavy pounding and magnesium helped for rapid heart rate. I agree that dairy might be the issue. Dairy can coat the intestines and inhibit absorbtion of other minerals which work synergistically. So it maybe a need for other vitamins and minerals to aid in the calcium absorbtion. Try some vit c too.

NAK
Angela

[sunshine's mama]

Thanks..

I did call my MW and she was out on a delivery but called in and talked to my fave nurse so...

MW wasn't too worried about it but said to call again if it happened again before my appt this thursday.....She said it was more than likely positional (mine and baby) since I am ALL baby and baby isn't happy these days no matter how I sit or lay..just lots of pressure at the top of my belly....

Dh has a blood pressure cuff so I have been keeping track of it and it was elevated a bit that evening but hasnt been since.....

I just had my iron checked last week and it was well within the normal range...

I prolly should be eating more protein but right now it's making me ill again.....

I'll update again after my appointment.......

[mwherbs]

how about some almond butter on a cracker, bread or apple slice?
a hand full of cashews , or other nuts
hard boiled eggs a few ideas...

[sunshine's mama]

Originally Posted by mwherbs

how about some almond butter on a cracker, bread or apple slice?
a hand full of cashews , or other nuts
hard boiled eggs a few ideas...

mmmm....almond butter.....and i do like hard boiled eggs......

i just finished up some cashews...got the lightly salted ones bc i can't eat them without a bit of the salt...

it'sm ore the meat proteins that are making me ill........

[ckhagen]

I had heart palpitation issues throughout the 2nd and 3rd tri.
I had EKGs and wore a monitor for a while.

In the end I basically came to the conclusion that I was just having unexplained tachycardia. I would get really faint and terrified thinking I was going to collapse and die. It was pretty frightening.

I did learn though that there can be reasons for it and you should probably have it checked out. Apparently a Mitral Valve Prolapse (which was what they initially thought might be causing it) can go undiagnosed until pregnancy and this would be the main symptom. I don't regret having had the ekg and monitor even though it didn't solve anything, at least I know it wasn't an MVP.