False vs. Real Labor

The continuation from THIS POST...

Once the doctor asked a few questions about my supposed Braxton Hicks, she seemed worried and said she was going to have me monitored to see what was going on.

To me, I thought, well yeah, they can hook me up for 10 min., but that will not be when I'm having these Braxton Hicks since usually they are off and on throughout the day.

So they found the baby's heartbeat (140 bpm) and tied the contraction monitor around me too.  As soon as they had the monitor going, I thought I had a contraction, then a few minutes later I knew I had another contraction.

After I looked at the paper strip, sure enough - two contractions....

They let me sit for awhile and the nurse came to check on me.

She looked at the paper strip and said "oh no."

She hurried to grab the doctor.  The doctor came in very quickly and said "you just bought yourself a ticket next door" aka "hospital.

Yep, regular contractions

The nurse was in such a rush after that.  Enough to worry both me and Steve.  We weren't real sure what they were looking at/talking about or saw that was causing such alarm.  These contractions, which I thought were Braxton Hicks, weren't anything new to me - something I've been feeling for a few weeks now.

They were in such a hurry they didn't even want to draw my blood for the glucose test, but did since it was only 4 minutes until time.  

The nurse got a wheelchair and wheeled me to the hospital... I couldn't believe what was going on.

I was taken to the Women's Evaluation Unit.  A monitoring area outside of Labor and Delivery.

More peeing in a cup, I got a new wrist tag, and they asked a lot more questions.

After being monitored for awhile longer, I was still having contractions, but to me they didn't seem as frequent.

The doctor came in and did an exam to make sure I wasn't dilating, which I WASN'T.  YAY!  Well, he said the "outside was" but the "inside wasn't" which is "good."  So still, yay, for that.  He took a few swabs for testing.

Then he gave me some meds to help calm down my uterus.  10-15 minutes later, I felt very sick.  Dizziness, my heart was racing, nausea.  I just felt out of control and called the nurse in.  She put on a blood pressure cuff and a finger pulse monitor.  Sure enough my pulse was high and my blood pressure had gone down pretty low.

They let me be for awhile, just keeping watch on everything.  Another doctor came in to do an internal ultrasound to measure my cervix.  Which measured long at 3, apparently anything over 2.5 is good.  So that told them that the contraction weren't causing me to be in a progressive labor.

Finally I asked for some crackers, because I hadn't eaten most of the day at it was noon by this time.  The water and the crackers also made me feel a little better.

After another hour of monitoring and me trying to rest, I noticed I hadn't had any more contractions and was relieved by that.  So although the medicine made me feel sick, it did work.

The doctor eventually came back to check for dilation again before letting us leave.  No dilation still.  Good news.  After he left I had the WORST contraction thus far.  One that seemed extra long and hurt my back so horribly bad.  Enough that I couldn't lay down in the bed and just rocked and rocked in the bed waiting for it to die down.  That, I haven't felt since being in labor with Alyssa.  That, was scary.

The doctor came back to tell me that all the test came back negative/good.  He said he really didn't have a good reason to tell me for what was causing the contractions.  That they were not braxton hicks but real contractions, and when I came in to the WE unit, the papers the nurse showed him looked like I was in labor with regular contractions 3-4 min. apart.

He said I have an irritable uterus, and cervix.  Which is why I had such a bad contraction after he did his last dilation check.

So I was finally released to go home with orders to:

drink lots of water

take it easy
no intercourse for a week

come back if I have 5 painful contractions in an hour

no med, because the ones they gave me made me sick

So I'm finally home.  I had a couple contractions on my way home already.  I have a feeling it will just be something I'll have to be dealing with through the rest of this pregnancy.  Unfortunately I worry I won't take real contractions seriously when the time comes and will wait too long before going to the hospital... 

Icing on the cake:

My glucose test came back elevated, ugh

So I have to go back next week for the 3 hour test.  BLAHHHH