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 