Anyone have experience with an irritable uterus? This was a complete shock to me and not how I expected to spend my Monday...
I went to the doctor yesterday for my first bi-weekly - yes, every Monday and Thursday - non-stress test. High risk, type 1 diabetic.
They hooked me up to the monitors, and came in 10 minutes later to tell me I was having regular contractions every minute. "Whaa? I feel absolutely nothing." "You can't feel that? No cramping, tightening?" "I feel nothing." "Ok, well, you're in labor, so we're gonna do some tests." So they swabbed me for the fetal fibronectin test and did a pelvic exam - which they found me to be 1cm dialated and 50% effaced. Wait, I'm a first time mom, I don't even know what effaced means. I haven't taken the classes yet!
And then they sent me immediately to L&D. Called DH: "Hi honey, good news is I'm cancelling our 2pm meeting (we work together), bad news is, I'm in labor and have to go to the hospital." I have an uncanny knack of breaking serious news in the most awkward ways...
So off to L&D we went. Again, I was hooked up to monitors, and given a dose of nifedipine to slow the contractions. Baby, meanwhile, is having a blast through this whole ordeal. Kicking, relaxed, not stressed at all. The contractions slow, my dr comes to visit, the ffn results come back negative (which tells us the baby's chance of coming in the next 2 weeks is low, thank goodness), they bring us lunch, and we hang out for 6 more hours waiting for the specialist. The contractions have slowed and I'm not urgent at this point.
The specialist comes at around 6, does an ultrasound and checks my cervix length - which is long enough that he's not concerned about the baby coming out now, so they avoid the steroids to strengthen baby's lungs - since that is a large risk to my health with the T1 diabetes. And they released me to modified bed rest for a week. They will reassess after a week.
Non-stress test my a**. I would call that a stress test. Stay put, kid.
Re: Labor Scare - You'd have an irritable ute too if a 4.5 lb boy kept kicking you in it, dr.
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No kidding! Glad it's looking good for now. Take it easy and hope your LO cooks a lot longer!
Big Kid Jan 2010
Littlest Man Sept 2012
this for sure... take care of yourself & LO
[MC 11.20.11] [DS born 9.24.12] [DD born 10.15.14]
Yikes! Good luck to you too! We need to keep these kids in!
Something similar happened to me over the weekend. I ended up in L&D thinking that my heart was going crazy and it turns out I was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart and while I couldn't feel them, they were making my heart rate really erratic and causing me to lose my breath. The on call said I was 50% effaced and after the contractions stopped and my FFN was negative they let me go home, but said I have an irritable uterus.
My OB explained that this early it's hard to assess effacement with an internal and I got an u/s, too. Like you, my cervical length was OK (3.1). It was 4.2 the last time the checked so it is shortening, but not enough for her to put me on bed rest. I got exercise restrictions, pelvic rest and a request that I work from home (darn!), but otherwise I'm free to go about my business. If it happens again, that will be different.
Hopefully you'll get out of house arrest next week and won't have any further issues until it's time for the kiddo to come out. Definitely not, non-stressfull!
Married my love 6/11/11 | MMC 10/11/11 | Eliza Frances born 9/18/12 | Rhett Garland born 2/24/14
Crazy! I go back for another non-stress test tomorrow. Hopefully things have settled down. And hopefully - they've settled down for you, too! Wishing you and your LO the best!
Lol! Thanks!!