Contractions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to the hospital on Wednesday after calling the Dr. to describe shooting pains in my pelvic area right in the center. I didn't have a clue it was contractions...just thought I wasn't feeling good?!?! Go figure. I didn't call the Dr. until 4:00 pm so they sent me straight to Labor and Delivery in the hospital for monitoring. I was hooked up by 5:00 pm (the shooting pain started around 3:00 pm or so) and immediately the nurse made a face. She stepped out of the room for a few and came right back with an injection of Terbutaline to stop my contractions! Shock! I had no idea! They were coming relatively strong every 2-3 minutes! Talk about immediately nervous. They slowed (not stopped) for about 20 minutes and immediately kicked back up again. Another injection and still no Dr.! I was getting rather annoyed by now. Another 20 minutes and the contractions are back again!

Finally the Dr. shows up at 7:00 pm and checks my cervix. It hadn't changed at all (thank heavens!). However, they wanted to do a fetal fibernectin test to make sure the contractions weren't actually preterm labor. So, that's a swab of the cervix and a 2 hour wait for the results. If there is some sort of "something" present in the test, then there is a risk of my cervix changing with the contractions. If not, then it's pretty safe to just continue dealing with the contractions (oh goodie)......2 hours later, the test came back negative! Yay...however, the contractions were still rolling at about 3-5 minutes apart. They sent me home on bedrest for the night with a prescription to make me sleep and the rule to drink a gallon of water every hour (ok, so not that much, but A LOT of water!) I came home and crashed.....without pills......and tossed and turned through some of the night with contractions. The Dr. said to come back to the office in the morning if they hadn't stopped when I woke up.

10:00 am and I'm still getting contractions....time to call the Dr. again.... They asked me to come in at 1:30 to do some more testing. When we got there, after signing in and peeing in a cup (with no waiting) they called me back. Blood pressure was fine still (110/60) but I watched my weight drop again :( They didn't say anything but I'm keeping track and I definitely don't want to see that happen (lost 3 pounds). Back to the room and the Dr. arrives...since there is a rotation of 5 Dr.'s, I updated her on what happened last night and I'm immediately sent to get a vaginal ultrasound to check my cervix. The Dr. was set to do it but decided to do a fundal height measurement first. Didn't like the look on her face when she pulled the tape measurer across my belly! She said..."You're measuring behind a bit"......how can that be?? I was just in the office a week ago for a regular checkup and I was right on target. She said it's probably because the baby has dropped! YIKES! Didn't want to hear that news!! Because of that measurement, it was time for a full ultrasound with with works in measurement!

Off to another room with the ultrasound tech to get to watch the magic. Raegan was full of herself and moving around like crazy for the ultrasound. She has had the worst case of the hiccups since I started having contractions so I got to watch her hiccup too! After 2 measurements of my amniotic fluid (because it was showing low the first time), cervix length (they measured it at 4...cervix doesn't start thinning until it's measured at 3), and baby size (she was 2 pounds 14 ounces) the tech was comfortable that all would be fine but couldn't say for sure....that's the Dr.'s call. Off to my original room (all the while, I'm changing rooms with a sheet wrapped around me from the beginning because she was going to check me by hand at first so I had to strip! lol) to wait for the Dr. and hear a plan. She said that with all of the testing that was done, she felt totally comfortable that we wouldn't see this girl for at least 2 weeks. Good thing! Her plan was to send me home with a prescription of Terbutaline pills to help ease the contractions when they were bad and to "take it easy" but not actually limited to bedrest. The more active I am, the more the contractions are going to strengthen and speed up. Not what we're looking for. She didn't like the amniotic fluid level that the tech gave her so she took me back to the ultrasound machine AGAIN for another look for herself to make sure all was ok. And it was for the third time :)

So, here I am, still having contractions, although not as frequent. There are certain things that seem to set them off like having to go to the bathroom or eating so I learn when to expect them and rest during those times. I go back to the Dr. on Thursday to follow up and decide if we need to change treatment plans and to make sure that nothing with my cervix has changed.

My due date is November 8th....I'm 29 1/2 weeks right now. Way too early to let her slip out yet. Just a few weeks at this time can make a big difference. 34 weeks or later would be ok...not good, but ok....so I have a few weeks to hold on. From what I'm reading, some people will have contractions for most of their pregnancy and with management (not bedrest) can go to full term or even later! Other people can come back with a negative fetal fibernectin and still end up in labor a week or so after the test. ?!?!? You never know what your body is going to do. Since this isn't termed "preterm labor" its what they call "irritable uterus"....basically just a pain in the butt for mothers who have to deal with contractions for weeks on end. It could change to labor at any time though so I have to be very aware of the difference in my body.

When we go to the Dr. on Thursday, I'll take another CD with me for them to burn the images from the ultrasound on again....so keep on the lookout for new photos of our girl :)