Premature Labor Scare - 10/8/98

Well, we had a little scare and I ended up in L&D last night.  For the past several weeks, I have been having BH contractions fairly regularly (often 1-2 per hour), but, last night, around 9:30pm, I realized that they were coming more frequently than usual.  This happened once before when I was 24 weeks along and I was told to lay down on my left side and drink a couple of glasses of water.  It worked at 24 weeks, but, it didn't work last night.  I continued to have the contractions, but, I wasnt sure if I should go in or not, as they were varied in intensity and frequency (anywhere from 4-11 minutes apart), so I called the hospital and they advised me to call my dr.  Dr. H basically told me to use my own judgement.  He said that it was probably nothing, but, if they were consistently coming more often then 6 per hour, than it was probably for the best that I go in and get checked out.  Better to err on the side of caution.... 

So, Joey and I left home around 11:00 pm and arrived at the hospital a little before midnight.  On the way to the hospital, the contractions were coming pretty regularly at 7-9 minutes apart.  By the time I got to the hospital and was hooked up to the monitor, they were coming every 3-4 minutes!!!  THANK GOODNESS I went in!!!  They checked my cervix and told me that I was 1 cm dilated, but, the cervix is still long and hard, which is good news. Shortly thereafter, I was given my first of two brethine shots.  It worked pretty quickly.  The contractions started spreading out almost immediately. At this point, I called Bev to let her know what was going on.  I didn't want to call her until we had some solid info to tell her.  She sounded so sleepy when she answered the phone, but, as soon as she heard my voice, she woke right up!  I gave her the news and told her to try not to worry.  (Yea, right!)  I convinced her not to jump in her car right then and drive down, but, to wait and see if the brethine would work.  Thankfully, it did!

They kept me in the hospital overnight just to make sure that the contractions didn't come back.  I was given a sleeping pill, but, it didn't do much good.  Little Scott did NOT like that monitor and kept moving around and kicking to get away from it.  So, every hour, the nurse would come into my room to reposition the monitor and make sure he was still there and ok. Needless to say, I didn't get much rest.  :(   That is ok though.  I only have to deal with this for 2 more months (hopefully).  Scott and Bev have the next 18+ years to deal with that contrary little bugger!!!  LOL!

Anyway, I was released at about 9:00 am this morning.  Right now, I am on bedrest, at least for the next few days until we see if anything else is going to happen. If I do not have any more contractions, I might be able to resume light activity next week. Dr. H. is also arranging to set me up with a home monitor to hook up to twice a day or whenever I am having contractions.

Right now, I am feeling pretty uncomfortable. My back and hips are aching and stiff. I am sure that is due, in part, to the rock hard bed I slept on (well...sort of slept on) at the hospital last night, not to mention having 3 monitors strapped tightly around my tummy all night long. (((((whine)))))  Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow after a good night's sleep in my own comfy bed.  On a positive note, it is great to be home and my dear hubby, Joey, is taking excellent care of me!  He took off work today and tomorrow and next week my household helper is going to start coming full time, so that will definitely help out!