early labor

Yesterday I was concerned that the baby had not been moving as much as before, and I also had a moderate amount of ketons in my urine which means I'm not geting enough carbs to eat, so my body is eating itself. So, I thought I would call my doctor just to get reassurance that everything is okay. She's a pretty laid back kind of person and never thinks anything I call about is a big deal. So, I was thinking she would just call me to tell me that as my baby gets bigger, she will not move as much. Well, instead she said she wanted me to come in to the office right away for a non-stress test, which is pretty much just a contraction and fetal heart rate monitor that looks for rises in her heart rate over a certain amount of time.

So, I left work and the test showed that she was just fine, but also that I was apparently in labor. The nurses kept looking at the monitor strip and asking if I could feel the contractions. I didn't know what they were talking about, I didn't even know I was having contractions. I just thought they were braxton hicks and have been having them for a while. They showed my strip to the doctor and came back and said, "you're in labor". They even asked if the contractions were "bearable" enough fo them to send me home. They told me to rest, drink water and monitor how far apart they are and then call back in a few hours.

So, I monitored these "contractions" and they were every 7-8 minutes, so I called to let the doc know and she decided to send me in to labor and delivery to be monitored.

I was surprised and felt kinda dumb walking in there with absolutely no pain. The nurse checked my cervix and I was 2.5cm dilated and 80% effaced, so they hooked me up to the monitor to watch the contractions and then check my cervix again to see if it changes. The contractions were every 6-8 minutes apart for an hour, so the nurse checked my cervix and there was no change, so the doc ordered a muscle relaxer that she said would calm my uterus down if it wasn't real labor, but would do nothing if it was.

The medicine made me loose and sleepy, but my contractions got stronger and closer together every 3-4 minutes. Still no cervical change though.

Nurse calls doc and doc decides to try a mild measure to stop the labor because 35 weeks is a bit premature. She said it's not early enough to pull out the big guns like magnesium, but that they would try up to 3 doses of terbutaline to stop the labor, but if it doesn't work then they would just let me continue to labor.

She gave me one shot of the medicine and my contractions completely stopped, but it also came with harsh side effects of a pounding, racing heart and feeling really jittery. It ws aweful. After about 30 minutes or so, the side effects started to die down and I started to have contractions again, so she came in and gave me the second dose. This time contractions went away for an hour and then they came back, but I only had them every 15-20 minutes, so she said I didn't need the 3rd dose (THANK GOD) and they decided to send me home at 1030.

She said that I would more than likely have this baby a little earlier than expected.

So, I came home and crashed after all that crazy medicine and woke up about 5 this morning with the same contractions, but sometimes a little bit painful. They are sporatic anywhere from 3-15 minutes apart, so I'm not sure what to think about that. The doc didn't put me on any restrictions, so I guess I'll go about my day as usual. I have a regular appt tomorrow, so I'll see what she says about that, but I really don't want to go on bedrest because I don't want to use any of my paid time of just sitting at home without a baby.