22 weeks. I’ll be 22 weeks on Tuesday and I feel like I’m sleeping as well as I would if I were in the last weeks of my pregnancy. 
Why? One little nuisance called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). This is an ailment that some people have to deal with all the time, pregnant or not; I feel for you seriously if you’re living with this 24/7. If you aren’t familiar with CTS, I’ll explain it to you in easy non-medical terms (we’re all parents, right? Sometimes I just don’t want to think more than I have to!):
Everyone has a nerve in their hand that helps control the muscle at the base of your thumb (look at your hand and move your thumb, see it?). The nerve runs through a bony canal or “tunnel” called the carpal tunnel. The extra blood and fluid that your body produces during pregnancy causes pressure on the tunnel and makes it smaller. That makes the nerve that runs through it compressed. The compression causes the pins and needles and numbness feeling in your hand. CTS is most common in people who have occupations that require repetitive movements like typing on a computer or working on an assembly line.
It’s common to be worse at night; which is partly why I’ve been sleeping so terribly. Most CTS symptoms develop in the second trimester but with this pregnancy I noticed it right away. It was one of the signs that made me think I was pregnant. I didn’t have it with my first pregnancy but I definitely did in my second pregnancy. If you’ve had CTS with a pregnancy it’s more likely to happen with subsequent pregnancies.
So what can you do? There are a few things that can help you cope with this annoying pregnancy problem. One of those things is wearing a wrist brace at night. This helps position your hand so that the tunnel the nerve runs through remains opened and not compressed by the water and blood redistributing in your body. Your doctor can help you in choosing the correct wrist brace.
You can also try shaking your hands out periodically during the day. You can hang your hand over the bed at night and shake it out. If you can actually remember to do this in the middle of the night, let me know your trick. It’s hard enough for me to make it to the bathroom in one piece let alone hang my hand over the side of the bed and shake it!
I’m going to give the wrist brace a try. I know it’ll take some getting used to but it’s got to be better than what I have been doing…which is nothing, other than repositioning myself what feels like 100 times a night. Have you experienced pregnancy Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? What helped you relieve the numbness and tingling feeling?
I am glad to know I’m not the only one! The only thing I have found that helps is putting ice on my hands, and also periodically getting up at night for a few minutes. Lucky for me this problem didn’t arise until week 30. After 5 weeks of this I can’t imagine ensuring it the entire pregnancy!
augh, yes, the last 4-6 weeks of my pregnancy my carpal tunnel got worse & worse. i wore a brace which helped but the tingling/numbness never entirely went away. i had exercises that had helped in the past but this time nothing lasted. i had to admit, that was one thing i was looking forward to about delivering baby; it meant the carpal tunnel would start to get better!
I have never experienced this fun side effect; sounds crazy annoying!
I absolutely HATE that pins and needles feeling so of course I was lucky enough to also get this during my pregnancy (although, it was pretty much the only side effect of pregnancy I had to deal with so I guess I shouldn’t really complain). I didn’t know there was anything that could be done so I just suffered through it, but if it happens with the next one I will definitely be trying the wrist brace suggestion!
I had the same thing! It was the absolute worst with my 3rd pregnancy. By the time I delivered life was grand but then I developed “mommy’s thumb” and eventually had to have surgery. One bit of advice, stay on the braces! Wear your braces extensively during your pregnancy and even a bit afterwards. I didn’t postpartum and due to the swelling that had occurred during my pregnancy, it created “slop” in my tendon sheath that eventually led to surgery. Just a bit of advice for all my mama friends out there!
A brace helps a lot because it helps to realign your nerve so it isn’t being pinched anymore. Different sleeping positions help throughout the night, and ultimately if it persists it requires outpatient surgery which is not a bad surgery at all. All the cases I’ve seen heal quite quickly and are back to work within 4 weeks depending on what your job duties are. Good luck!
OH I forgot to mention in my previous comment chiropractors help ALOT!!!
Sounds just as awful as sciatica nerve issues:(
Yikes! No fun! As if you don’t have enough to deal with, I hope it does not get worse for you.
I have something like CTS, never got an official diagnosis because it’s so strange but it’s very similar, if not just an odd case of it. Since I was very young (I did go to private school and had to write A LOT) I’ve had a sharp shooting pain in my wrist (right at the carpel tunnel) that is so unbearable I can’t do anything except hold my wrist very right putting pressure directly on the pain with my thumb. it happens quite randomly and sometimes doesn’t happen for months or happens several times a day for weeks. it definitely was more frequent when I was pregnant! a wrist brace did help in times that it was frequent, but like I said, putting direct pressure on the pain is the only thing I could really do in the moment. ugh. I feel so bad it’s keeping you up at night I really hope the wrist brace helps and you can keep some sleep!
Wow, I’ve never heard of this! Hopefully I won’t experience it during this pregnancy.
Mine was terrible..and it didn’t go away until 3 weeks POSTPARTUM!
Wonderful thing that I haven’t had to deal this fun fact yet.
I have not experienced that. But a wrist pillow may help!
I had never heard of this before. Sounds awful.
I feel lucky that this is one pregnancy issue I’m NOT having…ugh! Hope it improves!
Yep had it a bit but not too much of a bother.
I wonder if it’s partly caused by the same thing that gives me awful Charley horses?
That sounds awful! I’m glad you have some ways to get relief though!
I never got carpal tunnel with pregnancy, but I did get it when I used to wait tables from carrying coffee pots. It was not fun, so I can definitely sympathize! Oh, the joys of pregnancy! But of course it is totally worth it all in the end
I never heard of this before!! But making a human does crazy stuff to your body. Good luck, hope the brace works for you.
oh goodness Id never heard of this before in pregnant women. Thankfuli didnt have to deal with it and I hope you find some relief!
I am glad to know I’m not the only one who has this problem. Luckily mine symptoms didn’t kicked in until I am around 35 weeks of pregnancy. My finger tips are numb and feel pins and needles at all time. Sometimes they are so painful that I woke up at night crying. Let me try wearing braces to ease some of my pain.
I’ve had to sleep with my arm up on a pillow before because of this. It sucks!
I had this too. Hoping it doesn’t happen next time I get pregnant.
I hate to be the barer of bad news, but a similar condition can come to play after the baby is born due to poor nursing and handling techniques. This time caused not by the comression of the carpel tunnel, but the over extension of the thumb.
Luckily icing (for no longer than 10 minutes at a time) and braces are a huge help. Should problems persist the best person to see, hands down (very punny, sorry), is an Occupational Therapist who specializes in hands.
I had that with my first pregnancy, and it seemed to really flare up when I worked (as a hairdresser). The second pregnancy was a whole different ballgame of ailments
I feel your pain! With my first I had pregnancy induced carpal tunnel and it was AWFUL! Noting seemed to help except keeping my wrist straight or rolling it around. Now I’m 38 weeks with number two and pregnancy insomnia. I can’t wait until I can get sleep again!!
Thankfully my cts went away in middle of third trimester.
I had this with my third pregnancy and it was horrible! I wish I would’ve tried a brace. It finally went away, three weeks postpartum. Like you said above, I feel sorry for the people that deal with this 24/7.
I experienced this too. Between my wrist hurting and needing to pee it seems like I never get to sleep! Thanks for the blog post.
I didn’t have this issue during pregnancy, but it showed up after baby was born! Had to pay extra close attention to my hand/arm position especially during work and sleep. It’s much better with time
Thankfully I have not experienced CTS, especially since I knit. Hope it gets better after pregnancy.
I had a touch of carpal tunnel syndrome before getting pregnant. My wrist would just become painfully stiff and I would have to rotate my wrists until they cracked to make it feel better. Of course, doing that was also making it worse! But during my first trimester, I noticed daily activities were becoming increasingly difficult to do. Things like brushing my teeth, sweeping, braiding my hair. It got to the point right at the end of my second trimester that I had very little strength in my fingers and hands at all. I started dropping things. I was put on pregnancy disability because of it at 25 weeks because of a lifting restriction the doctor gave me. I’m now 29 weeks along and it is still getting much worse each week.
In addition to wearing a brace (especially at night), I find that simple stretches throughout the day help. Just Google carpal tunnel stretches. Also, ICE! It helps with the swelling, which helps with the pain. Not much to do about the tingling, though!
I experiences carpel tunnel with my first pregnancy (girl) very early on and until I delivered. It was not fun. It was amazing that it just disappeared as soon as my daughter was born. Interestingly, I didn’t have it at all with my second pregnancy (boy).
I’ve had carpal tunnel and tendonitis in my hands for years now – it’s awful! I’ve found a brace helps a lot, as well as stretching and icing as needed. I had no idea it could manifest as a pregnancy symptom, I hope it gets better for you soon!
I had never heard of it being a pregnancy related condition until it happened to me. Everything I read said it would go away after the swelling subsided. Not so in my case. It was super fun trying to take care of a floppy newborn with numb hands and excrutiating pain. I ended up having surgery on both hands. Recovery was much easier than I expected.
I didn’t realize this could get worse with pregnancy! I started a new job when I was 12 weeks pregnant (I’m 24 weeks now) and I sand a lot of stuff and my hands and arms have been hurting more than they should. wonder if pregnancy is making it worse!?
I had some CTS symptoms with this pregnancy, but my biggest discomfort was the sciatic pain. Absolutely excruciating!
It was gone within a week of delivery!
I did not experience this during my pregnancies. Sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this- it does not sound pleasant at all.
I had CTS pregregnancy and was treated with wrist braces that had been custom made for me by a PT since I had too-small-wrists for adult sized braces and too-wide for pediatric sizes ones. I thought I would be fine if it returned, but to my chagrin, there was a little too much swelling and the stupid things no longer fit. I went back to “sleep training” my wrists and corrected the angle throughout the night. To be fair though, I didn’t sleep more than 20 minute stretches at any time during my pregnancy, so this task was easy.
The wrist braces at night helped for me, and so did applying heat (running under hot water in the bath, or using heating pads). Definitely no fun, though.
wow, this sounds like it sucks, such a weird condition
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