Horrible Pain in Ribs?

I am 21 weeks pregnant and for the last 2 weeks or so have been having progressively worse discomfort/pain in what feels like my lower ribcage, especially on the right side. It feels like being alternately kicked and stabbed right below my chest. Sometimes it wraps around to my back. Anyone else suffer from anything similar? I did a Google search and it looks like a pretty common problem (I'd never heard of it before!) but there doesn't seem to be any real solution to it. It seems to be caused by everything just getting "pushed up" and into that area. I don't think I'm far enough along yet where the babies' feet are pressing up against my ribs. I have an appointment with my doctor in a few days, and the nurse I talked to today told me it might be my gallbladder, but that doesn't seem right. I'm really frustrated! Heating pads and laying down work, but obviously I can't do that all day (would be nice... )

 

oh yes they can be up that far! Mine started at 16 weeks! Turned out that's where a set of legs were and still are! But my OB said the same heating pad on low to help those rib muscles, because at times the muscles would just quiver because they hurt so bad! But other than that I can't really complain about to much other pain at 35 wks so if you look at this possibly being the worst... Then it's not to bad

 

They can totally be up that far! William (my baby B) hung out in my rib cage from 18-37 weeks.

 

Yep. Orion was transverse up by my chest and he'd stretch his head and feet out. It hurt so bad! I'd sit around pushing him back in, if you will, for up to 1/2 an hour... and then let go and he'd go right back to it. Maybe getting down on all fours would help throw the baby off balance and give you some relief?

 

I am actually just as far along as you are and truly both of the babies are up that far for me and it is a HUGE pain in the you know what. Most of the time i can only sit up for about 20 min at a time before i lay down and try and get the babies to move and lets not even get started on walking. So i talked my midwife into letting me work only part time for the next 2-3 weeks cause I will be put on bed rest in May. But good luck with getting the little ones to move!!!

 

I had this and it never went away. I had a desk job up until I was 30 weeks and I actually sat with a baseball at my back to help with the pain (it was the pain that wrapped around my back that you described). Laying down helped, a low heating pad gave me *some* relief. Back massages....thats always nice regarldess if you are pregnant. lol.

Just know that it goes away instantly after they twins are born. Seems like a ways away for you, but trust me, its all over in a blink of an eye.

 

I had it too! My baby B either had his feet or butt up in my ribs on my right side from about 22 weeks on. It was horrible! The only relief I got was from putting something cool on my ribs. The only time I felt really good was going swimming... it felt good to be weightless!

 

This was my biggest complaint when I was around 21-25 weeks! I was convinced that the sharp pains I felt under my right rib cage, as well as the radiating pains in my back, where from my gallbladder being damaged and possibly rupturing (yeah... I was spending way too much time online). I went to a radiologist and had an abdominal ultrasound, which showed my gallbladder to be normal, as was my pancreas and stomach, albeit they were all pushed upward. BUT, my right-leaning uterus (as most uterus are right-leaning) was compressing my right kidney, which wasn't draining fluid well, and the doctors believed that was what was causing the pain, especially the back pain. The bad news was that there was nothing I could do about it, except wait it out. By about 26 weeks, I realized that pain had subsided (only to be replaced by new ones

Mention it to your doctor -- but I wouldn't worry too much. BTW, one thing that did help me sleep at night, was to use a hot water bottle on my back, not where I felt the pain, per se (which was higher on my back, near my shoulder blades) but rather near my kidneys. That, and an occasional tylenol.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention -- sometimes I felt the pain was aggravated by strange positions the babies took. Especially, when one of them decided to be transverse when the other was vertical on the right hand side. I found this website http://www.spinningbabies.com/ -- it has some techniques/positions for "turning" the babies. It really helped me, especially when they were still small. In fact, I credit the positions I learned on that site to flipping both my babies to vertex positions around week 28 and keeping them there until now.

 

Me too...it was horrible and like many others said it didn't go away! I found it was bad when I was driving because I couldn't move around to get to a more comfortable position. I used to massage whoever it was who was there down and away from my ribs...this would work for a bit and then it would be back again. It goes away as soon as the babies are out .

 

I had horrible rib pain. He would put his head right up under my ribs and push and it would cause my ribs in the back to go out causing a ton of pain. The only comfort was to try to move him with an ice pack and then get on all fours and arch my back. I used A LOT of ice packs and heating pads. The only relief I got was the day they were born! Good luck!

 

i would def. let your doctor know though. I found out that i had a gallstone and it was aggravated and thats what was causing my pain. which actually is in the lower ribs and goes to the right side and can go into the back. Its always better to be safe than sorry.

 

Actually that sounds exactly like the pain I had from gallstones--unfortunately many of the medical professionals in my life were too quick to blame it on the position of the babies. Gallstones can be dedected my an ultrasound so at your appointment ask your doctor to check just to be sure. If it is gallsones, you can either have your gall bladder out now, or if you and your doctor are not comfortable doing the surgery, you can modify your diet to reduce the problem until after they are born then see if the problem persists and have surgery then.

 

I had that pain too...it was severe enough to take my breath away. Turns out, my babies were so big that my baby B (my dd) was actually seperating my muscle from my rib cage. Whatever body part was up that high at the time, was pushing on my stomach muscles and it was lifting off my rib cage. Holy. Pain. Batman!! Heating pads, and ice packs helped some, but truly the pain didn't go completely away until I had them, and then it instantly disappeared!!