Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post. My follow up appointment isn’t until October 1st, so I’m just trying to operate under the assumption that all is well and will resolve itself properly.
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For the past few weeks I’ve been having Braxton Hicks contractions. I didn’t really realize what they were at first, but after looking it up online I’m sure that’s what they are. (Side note: what did we ever do before the internet?) They aren’t painful, per se, but they are uncomfortable. I feel short of breath and my stomach feels tight. If I put my hands to my lower abdomen, it feels like a hard ball has taken up residence there. If I hold my hands to my stomach I can eventually (after about a minute) feel the muscles relax. It sort of feels like the muscles are melting away.
I feel the BHs most when I do the following:
a) don’t drink enough and get ever so slightly dehydrated
b) refrain from peeing for more than a damn minute, causing my bladder to fill up with a thimbleful of urine.
c) sit for too long, like in the car or at my desk
d) lay on my back
I’ve just been kind of living with the BHs, but I mentioned them to a friend of mine at work today and he told me I should call my doctor. He didn’t think it was normal to have BHs so early. So I called and left a message with the nurses line. A nurse called me back just now and proceeded to scold me for the following:
a) not drinking enough water and getting dehydrated (she said I’m supposed to be drinking 16oz of water per hour. Good LORD. Why don’t I just glue a toilet to my ass now?)
b) not emptying my bladder at the “first urges” (see my comment above about gluing a toilet to my ass)
c) not changing my position enough, i.e. sitting for too long. Does this give me a “get out of boring meetings free card?”
d) laying on my back. I know that laying on your side (“preferably your left side”) is the best position, but I thought the back was still an option.
I’m not really worried that this is a sign of early labor, as my cervix looked good at my 20 week scan (no shortening or effacing or any of that) and I haven’t had any fluid leakage. Also, the internet says BHs are not an indication you’re going into labor if they remain infrequent and don’t form into any kind of pattern. Is 3-4 a day infrequent?
Shit. Apparently not only am I crap at getting pregnant, I’m crap at being pregnant.
Oh well. Off to drink gallons of water, wearing my depends, while changing positions frequently.
The Mamas Rapscallion 
It’s so hard to intuitively know all the rules of pregnancy! Allergy eye drops are a no no. Well, only used those a handful of times before I found out. I used salicylic acid acne treatment when I broke out like crazy when I got pregnant. Then read that was verboten. Ate a shit ton of eggplant and then my acupuncturist told me it wasn’t safe until the end of the third trimester as eggplant can bring on contractions. Why isn’t this on the eggplant sticker?! I just have to believe that there are women out there with less pregnancy know how giving birth to healthy babies despite all their supposedly horrendous mistakes.
You are not crap at being pregnant. BH is completely normal. And dehydration is the most common cause. As long as you aren’t having extreme pain or other scary symptoms that accompany them, you’re just fine. I’m not sure why everyone wants to scare pregnant women. I am going to push the water though…that is super important. It will help with a lot of symptoms.
OK, I get that staying hydrated is important, and I’m very diligent about drinking enough water. But 16 oz per hour every hour is a LOT. My job doesn’t always allow for two bathroom breaks per hour, so I may need to start wearing a diaper.
I’ve read about other women saying they have BH as early as you too. I don’t think it’s uncommon. But I suppose avoiding them if possible is best. Hope her “suggestions” work!
Oh, gosh this sounds awfully familiar. I started having BH at about 20 weeks. In terms of the numbers, I’ve been told by both practices that I’ve been with this pregnancy (long story….) that if you have more than 4 in an hour you should call your OB. So 3-4 in a day sounds totally fine.
Sorry you got scolded–there’s no way to magically know all of this stuff, so it’s obnoxious of the nurse to assume that you should. Or to assume that we’re all lying around (on our left sides) eating bonbons and therefore able to follow all of the “rules.”
I’ve been having the added fun of sometimes being unsure if I’m actually having a contraction or not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the tightness is coming from my belly or from the baby getting in a weird position. So if you think you’re doing a crappy job, imagine me calling up my OB practice and telling them that I think I might be having contractions but I can’t really tell….
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