A Trial Run

So….I guess we got to have a trial run of what labor and delivery will be like! First, I’m fine. Baby is fine. Baby is still inside and incubating. But we did have a little bit of a scare last week.

Wednesday evening last week I had some mild back pain that was different than previous back pain issues I’d have. Michael rubbed my low back a bit, I took half a muscle relaxer and went to bed. Seemed fine the next day. Went to work, left early for an appointment and was having some back aches again. It felt like mild period cramps.

I got home from my appointment and it wasn’t raining so I took Bella for a walk before our childbirth class. During the walk the cramps were starting to bother me. They felt just like menstrual cramps–achy, throbbing, waves of pain in my low back and now in my pelvic region (like where the ovaries would be). They would come and go. Yes, yes, I know. You’re reading this and if you’ve had kids you’re probably thinking “those are contractions!” But I didn’t know what they were and I wasn’t having any other signs of preterm labor.

We went out to dinner (slices of pizza) and then went to our childbirth class (more on that in a bit). I asked the teacher about the crampy feelings and she said that could be a sign of preterm labor and that I should call the L&D nurse line.

After class I called and described my symptoms and they said to come in right away. Kind of a freaky moment. My first thought was “it’s too early.” I was almost 33 weeks at this point. We were already at the hospital for our class so we went to Labor & Delivery.

They checked me in and hooked me up to this the fetal monitor. It looked like this:

The nurse was great and the doctor was great. They said the cramps could be a sign of a UTI so they tested for that (I’ve never had a UTI so I had no idea what it felt like if I had one).

It was hard not to feel a little panicked. I kept thinking “he’s only 4 pounds this week” and that freaked me out. Then I thought about how the nursery isn’t done, we haven’t had the baby shower yet, we don’t have any baby stuff we need, the car seat hasn’t been installed yet, I didn’t pack a hospital bag yet…The to-do list was too long for him to come early!

They monitored the baby’s heart rate for about 90 minutes. They said his heart rate was perfect. He was moving around a lot and towards the end of the exam he had the hiccups, which made the doctor laugh and made the heart rate sound weird.

I was having frequent but mild contractions according to the monitor.

They did an exam and said my cervix was complete closed and high, so no risk of labor starting. They also did some test of proteins that can predict whether or not I go in labor in the next week; that was also ok.

The doctor said it was probably an Irritable Uterus. Fun name, huh?

Irritable uterus (IU) is the name given to a uterus that contracts in a disorganised fashion during pregnancy.  These contractions do not shorten or open the cervix, and therefore do not lead to labour. However, from anecdotal evidence we know that common triggers for the contractions include exercise, lifting heavy objects, having an orgasm, dehydration, stress, constipation and a full bladder.