Third Trimester and a Labor Scare

Officially in the final stretch!!  So crazy!

Things were pretty uneventful there for a while.

Heartburn, pelvic pain, waddling...

And happily loving baby's kicks, feeling his first hiccups, and dreaming of his nursery.

Then on Monday, baby boy decided to make his  mama a little worried!

I've had a ton of Braxton Hicks contractions throughout the pregnancy,

but I started noticing late in the night that they were getting more uncomfortable.

Being a good little labor nurse, I did all the tricks that I often tell my patients:

take a warm shower, drink lots of water, lie down and rest...

And I was still pretty uncomfortable.

I then started to time my contractions and they were coming every 3-12 minutes.

But they weren't super painful, so I was majorly torn.

I didn't want to look like an idiot going into the hospital being a labor nurse

only to find that absolutely nothing was happening.

But at the same time, I've seen quite a few scary situations of preterm labor,

so I'm probably more paranoid than the average person.

So after about six hours of consistent contractions,

I finally decided to go in and get checked.

I decided I'd rather look dumb and be safe than be sorry and not check if something were going on.

When they first put me on the monitor, nothing was really showing up as far as contractions

and I was starting to feel embarrassed.

(I'm delivering at a different hospital than I work at due to insurance so I

didn't have the luxury of being with my own coworkers)

But after a little adjusting of the contraction monitor, they finally started

to show up and I realized that I wasn't crazy!!

In fact, I was contracting more than I even knew,

for a while they were about every 1-2 minutes.



Excuse the no make-up and wet hair.  It was 4 AM.

So they did all the usual preterm labor workup.

My urinalysis looked perfect, my FFN was negative (indicating that preterm delivery is unlikely),

and luckily I was only 1/2 a centimeter dilated.

That's what I was most worried about.

And baby looked great too, that's also most important.

So they gave me a shot to relax my uterus, and that stuff is a miracle worker.

I hated it cause it made me feel like I was having a panic attack, but

it stopped those contractions in their tracks!

The next day I felt like a million bucks.

I didn't realize how uncomfortable I had been until it was gone.

I'm so grateful everything was okay, but I'm still paranoid that this little boy is going

to continue being a trouble maker.

I've had a few bouts of contractions since, but nothing consistent, so I'm happy :)

I guess he just wanted to remind me that he's there and that he's running the show!

You better behave, little one!

We've still got a while to go!!