Increased Heart Rate

Hello,
I'm new to this site and am almost 22 weeks pregnant with twin girls. I have a question about my heart rate...it's been going up! Resting it stays around 100-108 most of the time...it goes down when I lay down in bed for sleep 90-98. When I'm up moving around even just making the bed it goes up to 120-160. It really has me freaked out even though the Dr. is not concerned. I had an echo and halter at 6 weeks due to palpitations which turned out to be normal. Still...did anyone or is anyone having this same problem? Any shared experiences or advice would be helpful!

 

I experienced a lot of that, the doctor's all said it is from increased blood volume. I would get it real bad when I would first wake up, I would wake up with my heart racing. It was very annoying. The thing I found to work best was just to stay very hydrated, I would drink a ton of water and that would keep my heart rate pretty normal.

 

Yes, I had (still do have) that problem. It started around 19 weeks and was terrible until about 23 weeks. Then my body got a handle on it. I was in and out of the ER 3 times. They checked me for cardiomyapathy by doing an echo. I too had a holter monitor and chest x-ray. I had a terrible time catching my breath during this time as well.

The cardiologist that I saw said that this is the time frame that the workload on the heart is increased the most during pregnancy. It is not uncommon for HR to be fast. As long as they rule out anything dangerous, basically, you may just have to live with the faster rate.

My resting heart rate stays between 110 and 120 ever since this episode, and when it jumps up...you can feel it. It doesn't get as high as it used to, usually it will only go up to 140, but I used to get in the 160's too. When it happens, sit down, put your feet up, rest. My doctor also gave some advice to slow it down: Give one hard cough, or bare down for a couple of seconds like your having a BM. This causes the HR to slow...I know it sounds weird...but it works!

Good luck
Bridget

 

it's a very common symptom of pregnancy

 

I had this problem when I was pregnant with the twins. I was often out of breath, had heart palps, and my heart was always racing. I was actually admitted to the hospital once for it. My resting HR was in the 140's! I was having an NST and they couldn't distinguish my HR from the babies. I had to have a heart u/s and ekg, both of which were normal. I was put on something for it, a beta-blocker, I believe it was Inderall? I took it for the last few weeks of the pregnancy.