Last night I had worrisome, painful contractions, sometimes regularly, for the 1st time this pg. I'm 31 weeks today. It was weird. I've had no worries about this baby coming early. My dd (my 1st baby) was early, 35 weeks, & was actually born the 3rd time I had gone into labor. My 1st labor with her was at 29 weeks & I was on bedrest until she came. However, she was born very sick, with a major bowel defect & needed immed. reconstructive surgery. I believe that's why she was born early, I think my body knew she needed to get out & get help.
My son (my 2nd baby) was born 3 days after his EDD, perfectly healthy. The doctors were worried my entire pg & put me on bedrest again due to my enormous amount of BH cx & my history of preterm labor, but there was never a problem.
This time, my 3rd, I've had the same BH cx I always have, TONS, but still haven't been really worried about preterm labor or bedrest. And really, I probably have absolutely nothing to worry about!! But still..... this morning at 5am I woke up starving, & while laying there trying to go back to sleep because I was too tired to go make food (!), I had 3 contractions that were way different than the usual BH. They were down low & felt more menstrual crampy. I got up to eat, went on the computer, & drank tons of water, & they kept coming every 10mins. JUST when I would think "I'd better wake up DP & call my MW", the next cx wouldn't come for 16 mins. & would be super weak or something. So, they were at times exactly 10mins. apart & painful, but then go all irregular & weak. They lasted about 3 hours & then tapered off & stopped by 9 this morning.
I went back & forth between worry ("what if I'm going into preterm labor? What if they don't stop? What if I'm going to be put on bedrest? What if I'm dilating?"), to telling myself "these are irregular, not getting stronger, longer or closer together, it's really nothing to worry about, normal 3rd trimester stuff".
I COULD drop everything & go get my fetal fibronectin test I'm due for anyway, but man my next 24 hours are jam packed with STUFF I really need or want to do (we bought tickets to see Dead Can Dance tonight like 4 months ago, my son has a book club to go to in the morning, bla bla bla etc etc) & I keep thinking that these silly irregular cx aren't worth dropping everything for. I'll go for the test Friday morning unless anything changes.
Now I am ridiculously sleep deprived & delirious, but am trying to just work with it because I figure that soon, when the baby comes, I'm going to have to live in a constant state of sleep loss delirium for months so complaining about it now is pointless! :LOL
Have any of you experienced anything like this during this pregnancy or another one? Did you discover that a few hour spurt of irregular cx had actually led to any dilation? I'm not contracting at all now.... oy, this is all so confusing.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far, this venting has definitely made me feel better.
My son (my 2nd baby) was born 3 days after his EDD, perfectly healthy. The doctors were worried my entire pg & put me on bedrest again due to my enormous amount of BH cx & my history of preterm labor, but there was never a problem.
This time, my 3rd, I've had the same BH cx I always have, TONS, but still haven't been really worried about preterm labor or bedrest. And really, I probably have absolutely nothing to worry about!! But still..... this morning at 5am I woke up starving, & while laying there trying to go back to sleep because I was too tired to go make food (!), I had 3 contractions that were way different than the usual BH. They were down low & felt more menstrual crampy. I got up to eat, went on the computer, & drank tons of water, & they kept coming every 10mins. JUST when I would think "I'd better wake up DP & call my MW", the next cx wouldn't come for 16 mins. & would be super weak or something. So, they were at times exactly 10mins. apart & painful, but then go all irregular & weak. They lasted about 3 hours & then tapered off & stopped by 9 this morning.
I went back & forth between worry ("what if I'm going into preterm labor? What if they don't stop? What if I'm going to be put on bedrest? What if I'm dilating?"), to telling myself "these are irregular, not getting stronger, longer or closer together, it's really nothing to worry about, normal 3rd trimester stuff".
I COULD drop everything & go get my fetal fibronectin test I'm due for anyway, but man my next 24 hours are jam packed with STUFF I really need or want to do (we bought tickets to see Dead Can Dance tonight like 4 months ago, my son has a book club to go to in the morning, bla bla bla etc etc) & I keep thinking that these silly irregular cx aren't worth dropping everything for. I'll go for the test Friday morning unless anything changes.
Now I am ridiculously sleep deprived & delirious, but am trying to just work with it because I figure that soon, when the baby comes, I'm going to have to live in a constant state of sleep loss delirium for months so complaining about it now is pointless! :LOL
Have any of you experienced anything like this during this pregnancy or another one? Did you discover that a few hour spurt of irregular cx had actually led to any dilation? I'm not contracting at all now.... oy, this is all so confusing.
Thank you for reading if you made it this far, this venting has definitely made me feel better.
I have no real advice other than what your MW told you (and I do know of someone in the Dec PG group who is taking Chinese herbs with some success in stopping BH), but wanted to tell you you were not alone with your fears of preterm labour.
She's already voiced her concerns about my BH cx many a time & doesn't like that I never call her when I have 5/hour, but jeeeez, I have 5/hour so freaking often, it'd be a waste. My gut definitely tells me so.
And the woman in the room right next to me (we were in triage so one of our walls was actually a curtain) was in labor, seemingly. Every 10mins she'd go OHGOD OHGOD OHGOD over & over, and then suddenly be silent for 10mins. I was excited for her! 
to Aubrey!
)
Thankyou.
