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#1
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
If anyone has any advice or reassurance, it'd be appreciated.
I am currently 30w 6d with what'll be my first child, no problems til now (other than boy oh boy is this ever an active baby! :-P), no risk factors for preterm labor except for my age (I turned 39 yesterday) and *possibly* having or having-had a UTI (the lab seems to have lost the first sample, so we don't really know yet, but frankly by now the symptoms have gone away anyhow). Last wednesday I did what was probably too much lawn mowing, then found myself having Braxton Hicks type contractions (nonpainful, mostly 30 sec or less) every 2-5 minutes for the next few hours. I was pretty worried but didn't call the midwife as they were not painful, no other symptoms, and I really really hoped they'd settle down on their own. Fortunately they gradually did by the next morning. (FWIW I've been feeling BH for a long time now, since about 17-18 wks into the pregnancy, if that matters). Well, three days later, on Saturday, my husband and I went for a longish but SLOOOOW walk. Other than having to walk very sloooowly these days because my legs feel like lumps of lead, I felt perfectly fine during the walk and really didn't think we were overdoing it or anything. Had a lot of uterine tightening-up feeling during the walk, but that's been happening most of the times that I'm up and moving around actively for the last month or two, and the midwives have said it's perfectly normal as long as it stopped when I rested. However when we got home and I could sit down and rest, I realized I was having Braxton Hicks type contractions pretty regularly about every 2-5 minutes (again, totally painless, mostly 20-40 seconds long), and was rather rattled to discover that I was producing blobs of purplish-brown mucusy discharge. I waited for about 4 hrs hoping things would settle back down but finally called the midwife, who sounded worried and had us meet her at the hospital to be checked. According to the monitor thing they strapped onto me I was having short contractions fairly regularly about every 2-3 minutes (the monitor picked up some that I didn't notice myself - honest, it didn't hurt at all, just sort of a squeezy feeling), tho at least the brown discharge had stopped. A doctor finally turned up to examine me (at 12:05 a.m. on my birthday - what a birthday present! :-P). He said that the baby was head down and pretty low, but that the very good news is that my cervix is still completely closed. Also he mentioned the u/s showed the baby moving around plenty (sidenote: I am getting REALLY TIRED of everyone saying 'gee, you sure have a wiggly baby' as if this could somehow have escaped my attention :-P) and it was still making regular breathing-type movements, which he said they usually stop doing when labor is actually beginning. So, he concluded that I did not seem to be going into premature labor (yay!!) and that I was probably just on one end of the frequency distribution regarding how many BH per hr is 'normal' for me. He and the midwife said to take it avoid too much exertion from now on, but they said that going for walks and doing yardwork and such shouldn't worry me, and that there does not seem to be any extra risk of problems as long as no other signs show up. Well, I *did* take it easy yesterday - mostly sitting, with a bit of sloooow walking up and down hills (I went to an equestrian competition with my husband who was doing photography there, and you have to walk out to the cross-country jumps, but it wasn't far and I spent 99% of yesterday just sitting lazily around). When we were driving in the car I was having a number of Braxton Hicks, like 10/hr or so, but the rest of the time I didn't notice as many. Seemed ok. But now this morning I've had tan mucusy discharge again (tho maybe that's just becuase of the internal exam the other night?), and some of the BH things are starting to have a somewhat crampy uncomfortable feeling to them. I know the Dr and the midwife say not to worry, but I'm sorry, I can't help it, I'm worried anyway. Especially since apparently if I *were* to go into actual certifiable preterm labor before 32w gestation (i.e. anytime in the next 9 days) I'd ahve to be transferred to a large hospital, which depending on beds available might mean Toronto (which is ~1 hr from our house but is more or less where my husband works) but OTOH might mean something as far away as Kingston or Guelph (which are a couple hours away). This is a particularly unpleasant concept for me because believe me I am *NOT* a hospitals-and-doctors kind of person to begin with. I don't know whether to go with what the midwife and doctor said, assume everything is perfectly fine and not particularly restrict what I'm doing (and believe me, there is SOOOOO much lawnmowing/gardening/house-repair that I ought to be doing, some of which gets to be a much much bigger and different job if you get behind on it) and just keep my fingers crossed, or whether I'm right to be worried. I feel fairly lousy, but some or maybe all of it is probably just in my head because of being worried, you know? I just really don't want to find out that in retrospect I've done the wrong thing. Yeah, I know that, worst case scenario, having a baby born at ~31 wks is not usually the end of the world, but obviously I would still REALLY REALLY rather wait til full term. (Well, going into labor the day I turn 37 wks would be fine with me... *man* this is a wiggly baby in there, ow, and pregnancy has *not* been a feeling-wonderful 'glowing' sort of experience, although it certainly is Interesting.) (Of course, my midwife jokes that now despite this scare I'll probably be sitting in her office at 41.5 wks still pregnant and trying to decide about induction ;-), which certainly could happen too) If anyone has stories about "I too had very-frequent BH contractions and a little bit of 'show' at 30 wks and everything turned out fine for me" I'd sure appreciate hearing it. I'm also accepting whaps upside the head accompanied by "quit worrying", and opinions on whether I should mow the front yard tomorrow ;-) Thanks very much for listening, Pat edd July 21 (btw, my "reply to" address listed above doesn't work) |
#2
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
Well, I can't really help in the BTDT category, as I'm only at 30 weeks
myself. However, I have also had BH contrax which have been getting more and more frequent and regular as the weeks go on, and lately they seem to be triggered by most anything that I do while on my feet, like grocery shopping or vacuuming or just walking. I was also told that even though I find them uncomfortable, they are not cause for worry (of course that doesn't stop me or DH from getting freaked out by them from time to time). I know I get really bored sitting around all the time and hate not being able to keep up with housework or yardwork, but unfortunately for me, the only way to prevent the really bothersome, frequent BHs is to *take it easy*. I try to look at it like this: the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy might be the last chance I have for a long time to be waited on and catered to by DH so I guess I might as well enjoy it, relax, and put my feet up. "P Harris" wrote in message m... If anyone has any advice or reassurance, it'd be appreciated. I am currently 30w 6d with what'll be my first child, no problems til now (other than boy oh boy is this ever an active baby! :-P), no risk factors for preterm labor except for my age (I turned 39 yesterday) and *possibly* having or having-had a UTI (the lab seems to have lost the first sample, so we don't really know yet, but frankly by now the symptoms have gone away anyhow). SNIP |
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
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#4
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
Glad to hear your cervix turned out to be closed.
But, I always discourage my patients from diagnosing their own contractions until 35 or 36 weeks. Preterm labor contractions may be irregular and may not hurt as much as full-term labor - until someone checks your cervix, you really don't know. Not too long ago I had a patient come in and deliver a 28 week baby - she'd been contracting for two days and her friends told her not to worry because they were "just Braxton-Hicks." Bottom line: don't sit at home all day and night worrying if your contractions are real or not, if you're in labor or not. If you think there might be a problem, go in and get checked out. |
#5
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
"alath" wrote in message om... Glad to hear your cervix turned out to be closed. But, I always discourage my patients from diagnosing their own contractions until 35 or 36 weeks. Preterm labor contractions may be irregular and may not hurt as much as full-term labor - until someone checks your cervix, you really don't know. Not too long ago I had a patient come in and deliver a 28 week baby - she'd been contracting for two days and her friends told her not to worry because they were "just Braxton-Hicks." Bottom line: don't sit at home all day and night worrying if your contractions are real or not, if you're in labor or not. If you think there might be a problem, go in and get checked out. I agree always get checked out if unsure...I know of someone who went to see a chiropractor for back pain then a herbalist for feeling awful that day and by night she delivered a baby very prematurely, she didn't relise it was labour....Babies born early do signifigantly better if they are able to hold off delivery until steroids have had time to help mature lungs and better still if they can stop it all together....Glad to hear yours wasn't preterm labour! Alissa |
#6
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
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#7
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
Cheryl wrote:
|| || The other tip I was always told was to take a bath - anything that is || labour you will still feel while you're in the bath but if it's not || labour the contractions will probably stop. That's why I got concerned over the weekend with my contrax, a bath didn't stop them. || Or you could have a || glass of wine, that has the same effect. See and I smacked myself in the head last night remembering that I should have tried that! --? Jenn -DS Feb'92 -DD Feb'97 -34 weeks! |
#8
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
P Harris wrote:
|| || If anyone has stories about "I too had very-frequent BH contractions || and a little bit of 'show' at 30 wks and everything turned out fine || for me" I'd sure appreciate hearing it. I'm also accepting whaps || upside the head accompanied by "quit worrying", and opinions on || whether I should mow the front yard tomorrow ;-) || || Thanks very much for listening, || || Pat || edd July 21 || (btw, my "reply to" address listed above doesn't work) Apparently I had all those things and it turned out to be 'nothing' see my recent post :no more watching labor shows. The only advice I would give is that if certain activity causes too many BH just don't do it --? Jenn -DS Feb'92 -DD Feb'97 -34 weeks! |
#9
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
"Fer" wrote in message news:hkqqc.19369$0e6.497@clgrps13...
Cheryl wrote: || || The other tip I was always told was to take a bath - anything that is || labour you will still feel while you're in the bath but if it's not || labour the contractions will probably stop. That's why I got concerned over the weekend with my contrax, a bath didn't stop them. Me neither! And similarly, drinking a couple glasses of water made no difference either (in fact I *think* it made them worse, possibly because of the resulting extra bladder fullness). Bodies are strange things :-P Pat edd July 21 |
#10
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this had better NOT be preterm labor (sorry, longish)
Thanks very much, y'all, for the reassurance. I'm still having a whole
lot of BH, but I guess maybe the doctor is right and I am just peculiar ;-) I've been taking it easy, but maybe I'll try just a little weedwhacking in the pasture today. It is all well and fine for people to say 'enjoy the opportunity to take it easy', but a) some things *have* to get done, and b) I *hate* just sitting around. But I will stop if I get uncomfortable. Er, that is, more uncomfortable than I am already. Urgh... my mother says that pregnancy was obviously designed by someone who had no intention of going thru it themselves ;-) THanks again, I feel less worried, Pat edd July 21 |
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