Spent the Night at the Hospital

Angelfish82

I wanted to see whether anyone has had this experience, and I also wanted to share what happened to me last night in case anyone else has to go through this:

First off, I should say that I'm 32 weeks. Yesterday afternoon I was having what felt like fairly strong menstrual cramps. I was at work and decided I would make it through a meeting I had scheduled and then head home. But the cramps were gone by the time the meeting was over.

When I got home, my husband wasn't there because he works late hours. I made myself dinner and then started having the cramps again. I could feel my uterus hardening and decided I was having Braxton Hicks contractions, but the sensations wouldn't stop. I couldn't attempt to time these contractions because they felt like one long, yet changing experience. Sometimes I would be hurting in my lower abdomen, sometimes I would be hurting in my upper abdomen. I would get periodic stabbing pains and my back and right leg would hurt at times. It was unlike anything I had ever felt, so I called my doctor's office and the doctor on call told me to go to the hospital to see whether I was in preterm labor.

My "pregnancy brain" prevents me from remembering the name of all the procedures, etc., but they performed a test on me that was like a small pap smear to check for a protein that would tell them whether I was in labor. They hooked me up to a monitor and determined that I was definitely having contractions and that they were six minutes apart which was so weird to me because I felt like they were zero minutes apart. Then they told me that I could be having contractions because I was dehydrated, so they took a urine sample from me and put in an IV. The urine sample told them I was not dehydrated, nor did I have a UTI (which apparently can also cause this type of thing), and it was further confirmed that I wasn't dehydrated because the IV did not cause the contractions to ease up.

The doctor came and checked my cervix and said that the end closest to the baby was tightly closed but the end furthest from the baby was slightly dilated. She said this was unusual, but because the end by the baby was closed, I was not in labor. Also, the protein test came back negative. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and sent me home at the crack of dawn. 

 Thank god my husband was there and that he's such a naturally good birth coach because I did not react well to this. I thought I would be really calm in labor or even potential preterm labor, but that was not the case. I was shaking and I could not relax for the life of me. Every muscle was all tensed up. And my hormones went haywire - I started experiencing all these pregnancy symptoms I haven't had yet had like numb hands and legs and CRAZY hot flashes. I also thought I was going to vomit so they had to give me this little blue bag... thankfully I did not get sick. I don't like the idea of vomiting in a small bag. I learned a lot from the experience (like I need to practice my relaxation techniques and I need to get on preparing that birth plan and hospital bag), but it's frustrating because I'm still not sure why this happened to me.

I'm supposed to rest up this weekend, but apparently I should be good to go back to work and school next week. I have an appointment on Monday though, so they can check my cervix again. 

Anyway, I don't even know what to call what I went through. It wasn't preterm labor, but the fact that the contractions were so consistent tells me it wasn't necessarily false labor. I asked the nurse whether these were just Braxton Hicks contractions and she just said maybe, maybe not. Also, when we left I was still feeling the crampiness although when they checked the monitor printout they said I hadn't had a contraction since 1 am when the gave me the shot. So yeah, I'm confused, but I'm feeling better. I guess I just have to chalk this up to being another weird wonder of pregnancy...