31 Weeks and Pre-term Labor!

Well- first off I'll start with the regular check up. Thursday I had an appointment and everything was looking good. I am measuring exactly 31 weeks and had been feeling great! I asked the doctor if she could tell if she was head down- and she is, and her heart rate was 140bpm. The most exciting part about this appointment was I scheduled the rest of my appointments until the end! Now I can really see the end in sight!

Then came Friday EARLY morning- I had a very restless night and at 3 am woke up to what felt like period cramps. I assumed maybe since she was head down that my uterus was changing again so I tried to get comfortable in bed again and get some more sleep. Then the alarm clock went off- I hadn't really gotten any sleep because these cramps kept coming and going. Let me state one thing here first- First time Mom- I have no idea what is going on so I had no idea what these "cramps" really were.

So- I got ready for work and in my Zombie state made it there safe and sound. I basically sat in my chair all day long and only stood up when needed because these cramps were still coming and going and my body was aching. Finally at 2:00 I decided to call a nurse and see what she thought about it. She told me to go home and lay down and continue to drink fluids (which I had been- a lot- that day anyway) and to call back once I had laid down for awhile if these cramps still hadn't gone away. At 6:00 they were still coming and going and some were worse then others and by this time I was just scared and confused as to what was going on because having these cramps since 3am couldn't be normal.

I called the hospital and a nurse told me that what I was feeling could be contractions- WHAT!?! I thought.... she told me to time them out for an hour and call back- so there I was- 31 weeks along and timing out Contractions! In that hour I had 4 in 25 minutes- they ranged from 1-5 minutes long and then 1 more noticable one after that. OK- now I was really scared and HAD to call Heidi to see what the heck was going on. She told me that this could be something serious- it could very well be pre-term labor contractions and if I can catch it early enough they can get them to stop- so I called back down to the hospital and told them I wanted to come in. In that hour I had 4 in 20 minutes and then 3 more stronger ones on the drive down there- side note- that road is NOT going to be a fun one when I'm in active labor- the contractions I was having were VERY mild and it was bad enough!

Anyway- I got to the hospital and they took me up to the labor and delivery floor and hooked me up to the monitors, I was having actual contractions every 3 minutes! I was just shocked that something like this was actually happening. They checked my cervix and I am only a finger tip dilated- which is a good thing- and they did another test- the FFN test to see if I could possibly have this baby really early and it came back negative- so no baby in the next two weeks. So they gave me a shot of a terbutaline, a medication that can stop your contractions. At first it made my heart race- which is normal- I felt very out of breath for a good 5 minutes, and then it made me a little shakey but it stopped my contractions! It was successful! So they sent me home with strict orders to take it easy- if I start getting them again to lay down or take a hot shower or bath- and if they become more frequent to time them out again and call the hospital if needed. Saturday I had some throughout the day- but nothing of what it was on Friday- and Sunday I only had one noticable one early in the morning and taking a hot shower fixed that.

It was a scary thing but thanks to a little medication she is going to stay put for awhile. She needs to bake for at least 4 more weeks- then if she wants- she can come into this world. But making it to 37 weeks is really what I'm hoping for, at least. So- I am going to be taking it easy from now on, my biggest fear is to have this happen again and then get put on bed rest, we can't afford that, so hopefully I can keep them under control with rest, relaxation and some hot running water.

Thanks to Super Mom- she helped me get my house good and clean this weekend. We got the carpet shampooed upstairs and all the rugs washed and everything just good and clean- having that all done really makes me feel a lot better and much more relaxed, it is hard to sit and relax when you have a long list of To-Do's before this little Miss comes. And also Thanks to Super Taylor for fixing my bath tub! I would NEVER take baths here before because something has been wrong with our drain- when I take a shower it doesn't go down right away, it pools up and then slowly drains itself throughout the day- so I was cleaning my shower every single day because it would have this soap scum in the tub part. SO- finally- after many times of trying to figure out what the heck was wrong, Taylor found the problem! And let me mention we've been trying to figure out what it was since February- so finding the problem was SUPER exciting to us, and it was an easy fix- so now my tub drains like a champ and Super Mom got it call clean and sparkling so I can actually take baths now to ease my aching back! So- the weekend started off rough- but ended satisfying.