Last night around 12:40am I started having contractions.

 I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions for the past couple of months, but these ones were different. They felt like my whole belly got really tight (as they do with my braxton hicks) but I felt pain during them starting in my back and even in the tops of my thighs. So I started timing. I was getting them around every seven minutes and was getting more than four an hour, which, in all the baby books says it’s time to call the doctor.

Well, first I called my mother, because thinking you might possibly be in labor at only 32 weeks is pretty scary and I wanted to hear what she thought. Of course she told me to call the doc, who told me to go to the hospital. My husband (who works nights) was still at work and I had to wait for him to get home before I could go. I was still having them while I waited and nothing in the books were working to stop them (drink a glass of water, change positions, lay on your left side). He got home not too long after I called the doctor and we woke up our toddler and headed to the hospital.

They put me in a bed and hooked me up to all the monitors. My contractions were still coming, a little sporadically but still enough to have 7 in the first hour. The nurse told me that the contractions weren’t very strong and very probably Braxton Hicks but they wanted to monitor me for another 30 minutes. In the next 30 minutes the contractions got stronger and longer. The nurse stayed in the room for a couple of them and felt my belly during them. She told me that she thought they should call the doctor and give me a shot of Terbutaline since the contractions were getting stronger and I was having a lot of them.

She left the room to call the doctor and almost as soon as she did, the contractions stopped. Twenty minutes went by with nothing. Another nurse came in (shift change?) and told me she thought that it was just false labor since they had stopped. She also didn’t tell me who the hell she was which annoyed me, but oh well… Just as quickly as the contractions had started, they were over and the doctor gave me the okay to go home. So around six am we started to head home.

A whole nights sleep lost, but one very important thing to be grateful for, no NICU baby. I told my husband I felt bad that my parents came an hour just to watch our toddler in the middle of the night for nothing, but at the same time I am so glad they came for nothing. Trust me, I am anxious and impatient to see this baby, but believe me, the last thing I want to see is this baby hooked up to tubes and wires like I did my first daughter. I would stay pregnant for a million more years to make sure we don’t have to go through that again. I guess we will just wait and see. I have still had more contractions today, but not close enough to go back to the hospital. I hope this baby waits a little bit longer to come meet her big sister, it would make me the happiest woman alive to be able to bring this baby home with me, happy and healthy, and at full term.

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