L&D take two

I think it will be fun to keep  track of how many trips to L&D I make this pregnancy. With Corynn it was a total of five between 35-39 weeks, so I'm already way ahead of the game this time ;-)
With my level of paranoia about preterm labor with twins, I'm sure I'll be in for a few more checks before the actual delivery day. I'm guessing I'm all the gossip at the nurses station "oh there's that crazy NICU nurse again, wasn't she just here last week?" Ha. I just hear so many of our preemie moms say that they didn't even know they were in labor. They all say they just had mild cramping or back pain and by the time they got to the hospital to get checked, it was too late and the baby was coming. So, I figure, if I have those symptoms and I go in right away, maybe they could get the labor stopped before I'm dilated to the point of no return.
This time it was a real reason though. Last Tuesday May 29 at 23 weeks and 6 days I started to have cramping and back pain around 4:30pm. It was pretty uncomfortable. It felt like dull period cramps but they didn't come and go like contractions, it was just constant. So I sat in the recliner and drank more water. I was guessing I was just overdoing it caring for Corynn all day and she had been particularly needy!
At about 5:30 they turned into more rhythmic BH that were uncomfortable enough that it would annoy me if Erik tried to talk to me during one.
I started timing them and they were every 5 minutes. Erik was urging me to call the OB but around 6:30 I decided I was just exhausted and if I could just take a quick nap, I'd be ok. At 7:30 I woke up and they seemed to have gone away. So I got up to eat dinner and the general cramping kinda came back but not timeable contractions.
We went to Target to grab a couple quick things we needed around the house which proved to be a bad decision. While walking through Target, the BH's were so strong that I felt like I was gonna poop my pants with each one although I knew that's not what it was (sorry TMI). I would have to stop and walk very slowly and tense up my face. We quickly went back to the car and I called my mom to get her opinion. She said to call the on call OB. Once we got home around 9:30 I called and she did not hesitate to tell me to go to L&D.
Corynn was in the bath and my mom was still at work on call so she couldn't come get me. So we loaded Corynn up in her PJ's in the car and headed for Shawnee Mission. I got there a little after 10pm. I left the usual urine sample and they hooked me and my babies up to the monitor. Their heart rates were great and they were very active.
Sure enough, contractions were showing up on the monitor every 3-4 minutes. They determined from my urine dip that I was NOT dehydrated. They said I must be drinking plenty of water bc my urine was very diluted. Good for me :-)
So they didn't even bother to start IV fluids on me. But they did say that my urine showed some leukocytes (white blood cells that are an indicator of infection) so they sent my urine to the lab to look for a UTI.
At almost midnight the nurse said it would be at least a couple more hours of monitoring so I sent Erik and Corynn home (she was having a major tired meltdown) and my mom was getting off work so she came up to the hospital to be with me and drive me home when wee were done.
They checked my cervix which was high thick and closed which made me feel soooo much better. They also sent a fetal fibronectin test to the lab which is a protein that would be secreted if I were about to go into labor any time in the next two weeks. This test was also negative!!! Good news.
My urine came back positive for a UTI so they determined this was the cause of my contractions. It's weird bc I had no other UTI symptoms. So, they watched me for a bit and the contractions remained about 3-5min apart but did not progress or become more uncomfortable so they sent me home with antibiotics around 3am.
Since I've been on the abx, the BH have slowed way down. Glad I went in after all!