31w2d

Last Thursday evening while driving back home from work I felt tightening of my uterus. Usually I have one or two braxton hicks contractions a day but they are painless and last only a few seconds. This one was different and my abdomen was very rigid and hard and stayed that way all evening. It was beginning to get uncomfortable but still no pain or discharge. I finally called my doctor's office at around 9pm and they wanted me to come and get checked. I hesitated till about 10pm as I was worried that they might think that I am such a wus to get worried about small things.

Finally my husband convinced me that it was time to go and we got to the hospital at around 11pm. They immediately checked us into Labor & Delivery and connected me to monitors to check for contractions and the baby's heart rate. The heart rate was averaging at 140's and I was having about 4 contractions in an hour. They were still not painful. My bp was also on the lower end as usual at 110/50. The on call doctor checked my abdomen and agreed that it was hard and rigid but wasn't sure why. Finally she decided to do the fetal fibronectin test to make sure that I was not going into pre-term labor. The test was a bit painful (like a pap smear) as they insert a speculum and get a swab sample from near the cervical opening. Then she also manually checked the cervix and it was long and closed. They also took an urine sample to test for protein and infection. We had to wait for an hr to get the results back and they all came back negative. So finally at 1:30 I was allowed to go back home with instructions to drink more fluids and lie on my left side. They also asked me to call if I had more than 6 contractions in an hr. By morning the tightness was almost gone.

Friday we went back to the doctor's clinic for my routine visit and a grown scan. We were so happy to see tic tac and she was wiggling her hands and legs. We even saw her open and close her mouth and it felt so surreal. The scan was a very short one compared to the 20th week scan. The tech measured her head circumference, leg-femur bone length, heart rate (about 140's), my cervix (4cm) and confirmed the gender again for us. Based on the measurements tic tac was measuring 33weeks4days whereas I was only at 30weeks5days. Since we did an IUI and I know exactly when I ovulated my due date cannot be off. Her weight was estimated at 4.5lbs and she was at the 95% percentile. My fundal measurement also came back at 33cm. This worried us a bit while we waited to meet the doctor. The doctor was very considerate and assured us more than once that there was no reason to worry and babies sometimes have growth spurts and also the ultrasound is more of an approximation. She said that tic tac was a very active healthy baby and there was nothing I should worry about. I will get another growth scan at around 36weeks and we go from there.

So far my discomforts have been sleeping comfortably and having to pee often. My weight gain is around 14.5lbs from pre-pregnancy and I am not sure if I can do anything to gain any less so that it will make her gain less. My doctor told me that my weight gain was perfect and I should not worry about it. All this drama rushed us into assembling the crib over the weekend. We did buy a matching dresser but now we are returning it and getting a changing table instead. Hopefully the nursery should be all set soon and we can start cleaning the house. We are in no way ready to have her sooner so I hope she gets the message and stays in longer. But if we wait till my due date I might end up with a 9-10lb baby based on her current growth rate. All I want is a healthy baby and don't even care at this point if I end up having a C-section because of her size.