Operation "keep the baby cooking" has begun...

Oy... this last week was an interesting one...

Chillin' in labor and delivery... enjoying my Betos salad...

Last week I had two nights where I woke up in the middle of the night having contractions. I've been having Braxton Hicks for a long time, really since about 17 weeks of pregnancy. But they have been getting worse lately. I haven't thought much of it, they are normal right? But it's become every time that I stand up, or am walking around, or bend over to pick something up. So Thursday at about 2 AM I woke up having a contraction. I got up, went to use the loo, and had another contraction on my way to bed. I tried going back to sleep but within a few minutes had another contraction. What in the world is going on? I downloaded a contraction timer to my phone to see if I could see if they were as consistent as I thought they were. They started dying out and went away within an hour and I was able to go back to sleep.

The next night I noticed that I was having pretty consistent contractions at 3 AM. I started timing them, and they were about 3 1/2 minutes apart. Hello! Are you kidding me! I thought about waking Trent up and going into labor and delivery but they weren't painful, and I would have 3 close together and then about a 10 minute break before another one. So they weren't completely consistent. But this lasted the whole night. Finally at around 7:30 AM they started fading away and I was able to get some sleep. But it really scared me.

I called my doctors office when I woke up and they told me to come in and get checked out. So we headed down there. I told my doctor what was up and she pretty much said as long as they go away then they are just practice contractions/Braxton Hicks and not something to get worried about. Then she wanted to do an exam... and changed her tune a little bit.

You were right to trust your intuition and get checked out.

Apparently my cervix is no longer holding up to the weight of the baby. So right now I am 33 weeks and almost completely effaced, and dilated to a 2.

We spent the next few hours having an ultrasound done to make sure that the baby is head down (which he is!) and getting steroid shots to mature the baby's lungs so that if he is born in the next two weeks or so his lungs should be okay. They then had me go get monitored in L & D to make sure that they baby's heart rate was okay and that I wasn't still having regular contractions. Everything was fine, but I am now really, really taking it easy so that we can try to keep this little guy cooking for a bit longer.

This is something that I've been worried about for the whole pregnancy to be honest. Mostly because my doctor in Las Vegas told me that because I have had a few uterine surgeries (D&C's) where my cervix was opened prematurely as well as a preterm baby where my cervix was opened prematurely, that there is a greater chance of my cervix opening up prematurely during pregnancy. I've been  having my doctors check the length of my cervix through this whole pregnancy (via ultrasound) and it has always looked great! I even had my doctor check it two weeks ago because I had been having lots of contractions during the day, and it was totally fine and not effacing yet.

So I don't really know what has suddenly caused my body to start contracting in the middle of the night, but that's just how it's going right now. I have medication that I can take if I start contracting that is supposed to make them stop, but so far I haven't had to take them yet. The goal is to try and keep this baby in until 36 weeks and then if he's born it should be okay.

So strange... I was totally planning on having 7 more weeks to prepare for this baby, and now I feel like it could be any time! I'm not done learning my hypnobabies stuff yet, so I'm nervous that I wont be ready to do that if I have this baby in the next two weeks. There is also lots to be done that I haven't even started thinking about because we've been busy being busy, having a fun summer, and spending this time playing instead of getting ready... because we had so much time!

And I'm worried about him being born too soon. I know that 33 weeks is okay. That there is so much that can be done for preemies and that they do so well now. But it does make me nervous.

Life... is so interesting sometimes isn't it? So now I'm trying to get my house ready and clean, get the baby stuff all ready to go, pack my hospital bag, all while laying on the couch. It's not that easy to do! I'm so grateful for good friends who have stepped up in the last few days and come to my rescue. I have a hard time asking for helping and accepting help, but it seems to be a common theme in my life so I'm just embracing it and grateful for the good people around me.