A Little Scare

So late Friday afternoon while I was working I started to notice that I was having some pretty consistent contractions. I sometimes have Braxton Hicks but they aren't ever painful and they go away quickly. So on Friday afternoon when I started having them they didn't feel any different than usual. But I did start to notice that they weren't going away. They kept coming every several minutes and even when I wasn 't having one my stomach still felt tighter and more tense than normal--it was wierd. So I called Dan after about an hour of this just to see what he thought and we both agreed it was nothing and I should just do the usual--drink water, lie on my side for a bit, go to the bathroom, have a snack, etc.--the best rememdies for contractions. So I did all these things over the next couple hours and still nothing had changed. Around this time Dan got home from work and now it had been about 4 or 4 1/2 hours since all this started. We both decided we should probably try and give the doctor a call just to find out when we should start to get concerned. We said a prayer together that everything would be okay. Then I called and spoke with the doctor on call and even felt a little stupid calling since I wasn't sure how paranoid I was--this just being our first pregnancy and all. But I explained the situation to her and after she asked a few questions she said "Yeah, you need to come down to the hospital right now and get checked out. Come right now okay?" This made me a little nervous, even though I had a calm feeling that everything would be alright in the end. We grabbed our things and headed out the door. When we got to the hopsital they checked us in and immediately strapped on the fetal monitor. After watching for a little while they confirmed that I was indeed contracting every 3-5 minutes and that it needed to stop. Fortunately, the baby was reacting well to everything and there were no signs of distress on his part. They gave me a shot to relax my uterus and stop the contractions which was successful after a bit. The doctor also did a fetal fibronectin test (a test that can detect a substance babies secrete if they are going to try and be born in the next week) as well as an examine of the cervix. Luckily the test came back negative and the cervix was nice and closed, no dilating or effacement to be worried about. So that was fortunate but they did take things very seriously and say that I had to be on bedrest for a while--at least until I can see my doctor again and reevaluate things. They gave me a nice long list of "don'ts" such as traveling and physical activity. So now we're here at home and just laying around hoping that things continue to go okay. I'm still contracting way more than normal just not consistently, so we're hoping it stays that way. The next several weeks will be interesting and the possibility of the baby coming more towards the beginning or middle of August instead of the end seems much more feasible. But you never know! We'll keep everyone updated as to what we find out in the next couple weeks and what changes. Please keep us in your prayers as we need this little guy to stay in my tummy for at least 6 or 7 more weeks!