The Longest Weekend Ever

It was a LLLOOONNNGGG weekend. And not the good kind. I mentioned in my 27 Week post that we were headed to my first baby shower this weekend in NJ. First, Hurricane Irene threatened our travels . . . but as Friday wore on, I decided to call my midwife about the contractions I was having. They had been getting more and more frequent over the past two weeks. But without pain or any other warning signs, I just wanted to let her know before we went out of town.

And . . . though I wasn't terribly concerned at first, I wanted her to help put my mind at ease. Instead, she told me to "immediately" go home and lay down, take Tylenol, and take a warm shower. She also suggested that traveling wasn't a great idea.

Over the past two months, I had gotten used to the mild to moderate tightenings in my lower abdomen. At first, they had worried me TREMENDOUSLY, but they would come and go with a few days of rest in between. Though I got them a few times before, I noticed them first after my 15K at 20 weeks. My midwife had suggested I was dehydrated and just doing too much.

Check and check. It made sense. I scaled back my mileage in response.


But they continued. At my next appointment, she thought that I was growing rapidly and just feeling it more than others might. I mean, look how much I grew in a week!


Unless there was pain, pressure, blood, or something else notable, I was OK. Thing is . . . I started to notice they were happening all the time: When I've been on my feet too much, when I'm stressed, when I am hungry, when I'm tired, when I'm dehydrated, etc., etc., etc.

Then, I started to notice they were happening every single day. Most recently -- less than 10 minutes apart -- even 5 minutes. I had been given the advice to "slow down" before. But I know my body, and I know that nothing I was doing helped much.


So when my midwife told me -- once again -- to drink water, take hot showers, and "take it slow" over the weekend, I wanted to do as little as possible to see if my activity level was really the cause. I spent Friday until Tuesday morning on the couch.

Very little changed.

Of course, as a result, it was an emotional weekend. Not only did we have to postpone my baby shower (and I thank my mother-in-law and all the guests SO MUCH for rescheduling) . . . but since I was doing absolutely nothing and still having a ton of painless contractions, I totally freaked out. Was I going into pre-term labor? Would I need to go on bed rest? Would I need to get muscle relaxants?

My mind ran wild. The internet didn't help.

Thankfully, my regularly scheduled appointment was this morning. I had kept careful track of exactly when I was having contractions. How strong they were. What I was doing when I had them (uh, nothing). Etc. I told my midwife that I was emotionally exhausted from the experience. I was worried that my cervix might be shortened. That I might have this baby early.

She immediately suggested we get an ultrasound (and a couple other unpleasant tests) to check out all the possibilities.


The short of it: My cervix is one of the longest and most closed of anyone they have seen recently. (TMI??? BUT YAY FOR ME!) Though the "usual" length is 4 cm or something like that -- mine measures in at a 4.17! Baby A. looks PERFECT . . . and she's huge. Her face looks like a baby's face.

And she looks way more like Stephen than she looks like me.

Diagnosis: Irritable Uterus. The contractions don't seem to be impacting anything, despite the number of them. Now, I'm not totally satisfied with this result, but for me, it seems frequent contractions might be the norm. My midwife didn't put me on any restrictions, but she suggested that from here on out, taking it easier is probably a good idea just for my own comfort level.

This post is getting super long. I just wanted to update you all on what's going on and why I've been somewhat MIA. More tomorrow on what this means for my and the rest of the third trimester!

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