Bad News, Good News

The weekend was a bit rough. On Saturday, I started having some contractions. I lay down and that helped a bit, although it took a while before they went away. Now, the contractions are really just standard Braxton Hicks. In general, they would be nothing to worry about except they occur every few minutes, so I should really call my doctor who I know would tell me to go to the hospital. Now, I have been through this drill before, so I know how it works. They will monitor me and assess the risk of preterm labor. If they think there is a risk of preterm labor, they will administer Terbutaline, which is pretty awful, and potentially poses some risk to the baby. I was hoping too keep myself out of the way of unnecessary drug intervention, so I did my own assessment. I checked my cervix and it was closed. I have been carrying very high for the past few weeks and the baby had not dropped down at all, so that was reassuring. The baby was moving arround a good bit -- in fact, he would kick after pretty much every contraction. Everything seemed okay, so I decided to just put myself on bedrest and drink a lot.

On Sunday, I started having the same contractions. Unfortunately, we were out and it took a few hours before we could get back home, so I just drank a lot in the interim. I got back in bed when I got home, but the contractions still continued for a few more hours. I probably would have gone to the hospital, but I had an 8am appointment at the high risk practice on Monday, so I decided to try to wait until then. Everything was fine by the morning when I left for my appointment. Unfortunately, this translated to another non-productive weekend in terms of getting ready for out rapidly approaching new arrival. Y had to watch T while I was out of commission.

The high risk practice had just gotten new ultrasound machines and, unfortunately, patient monitors were not hooked up, so I did not get to see the baby much, although Y was able to watch the full scan. I was told everything looks great, though -- no growth problems so far, which is a huge relief. The baby is an estimated 4lbs 11oz., in the 60th percentile, and dated at 33w6d (I was 32w2d at the time). Since T was only 4lbs. 1oz. at birth, I'm entering into uncharted territory for me now, carrying a baby that is larger than what I have carried before.

I saw Dr. Careful and when I told him about the contractions over the weekend, I was scolded for not calling my OB -- I knew that was coming. He wanted to do an internal exam and run a fetal fibronectin test, which helps assess my immediate risk for going into labor. My cervix was closed and very far back, so he had a hard time reaching it, which he said was a good sign. The fibronection test came back negative, so it looks like there was no harm done in my skipping a trip to the ER.

My next visit to the high risk practice is not for another 6 weeks and that is pretty close to when I could be scheduled for delivery. Dr. Careful says he doesn't think there is likely to be any growth problems this pregnancy -- 60th percentile at this stage is a good sign. I think T was down to the 35th percentile by this time. Hopefully, there will be no more unusual contractions and I can have an uneventful 2nd half of the 3rd trimester.