scared

I have been having some mild lower abdominal cramps all weekend and then yesterday I had some pretty bad ones. They started out feeling just like menstrual cramps in the morning, but were pretty consistent, so I called my doc to see if this was normal. It wasn't off to the sides like ligament pain, so I thought since it was new, it was worth asking about. Doing the job that I do, I'm just a little extra paranoid about preterm labor. My doctor isn't in on mondays, so her nurse just called and told me it could just be musculo-skeletal changes, but to lay down all day, drink lots of water and see what happens. She told me that if they got worse or had more than 4 strong pains in an hour (not consistent dull pains) to call back. Most of the day was okay as long as I was laying down, but when I would move around, they would come back. Then at about 3:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and they started hurting really bad. And on my way back up the stairs I had to stop and hunch over from the sharp pain. So, I laid back down and it took about 10 minutes for it to stop, so I called the nurse again. She said that she would leave a note for my doctor for today and that if it continued, then to call the on-call physician and see what she thinks. They calmed down as the night went on, but then I had a new scare. I got out our home doppler to listen to the HB and i found it loud and clear and we were getting ready to time/count it when it started to slow down to almost nothing. It got slower than my HB, probably as low as the 30's or 40's and stayed there for about 10-15 seconds and then sped back up to 144. SCARED ME TO DEATH. I know it wasn't the doppler cutting out for a second or that the baby just moved, They were very clear beats slowing down. I just left a message for my DR about it, although I have a feeling she'll say that I didn't know what I was listening for, it probably just disappeared or moved and that I should stop using it and worrying myself. I guess we'll see. So, now I'm totally freaked out that something is wrong. I really like having the doppler because most of the time it eases my worries, but last night it just added to them.