Being Pregnant
My Uterus is Angry
I guess the technical medical term is that my uterus is irritable. But it sure feels angry.
I’ve been working 8-5 for the past 7 weeks with no difficulty. My job involves a lot of time on my feet and time on the floor playing with kids. For the most part it’s going well, but I’d be lying if I said that the getting up off the floor part wasn’t becoming a challenge. I still have 9 weeks in my clinical affiliation and thankfully everyone there has already accepted the reality that as time goes on, I’m probably going to be able to do less and less.
But for the most part, work has gone smoothly. Very few contractions. Until this weekend, when oddly, I wasn’t working.
On Sunday around lunch time, I kept getting braxton hicks contractions. You know, the kind that don’t hurt, but make you feel like your whole uterus has shunk and hardened into a rock. It was pleasant. My doctor’s rule is 4 in an hour and you go to labor and delivery. I knocked 4 hour in 38 minutes. So I called L&D and they said to lay down, drink a cold glass of water and see if they went away. If they didn’t, come in. If they did, continue to drink water and relax.
Thankfully, they slowed down. For a while.
By the evening I was having 6 or 7 an hour, so I begrudgingly went to the hospital, for the second weekend in a row (last weekend was for a UTI). I got admitted, hooked up to all the monitors (my son does NOT care for the monitors) and waited. Unlike the previous weekend where the monitors were pretty quiet, this time they were picking up all the contractions. The OB decided that they were going to have to check my cervix both manually and with an ultrasound.
To all our delight, my cervix was classified as closed, high, firm and long. These are apparently all very good things for a cervix to be at 29 weeks. But they decided to continue monitoring me for 2 more hours and recheck again then.
In those 2 hours I had more contractions than I can count. None of them painful, all of them really obnoxious. And in 2 hours, my cervix was still closed, high, firm and long. Which means that none of those obnoxious contractions were doing anything productive, which is obviously good. That, combined with my negative FFN from the week before meant I was not in preterm labor.
Just that I have an irritable uterus. Which is apparently pretty much untreatable. And for the next 11 weeks, this will pretty much be my norm. I am given their blessing to not come to L&D unless the contractions get regular or painful, or if I have other signs of preterm labor. And I am to drink a ton of water, which I was already doing. I am relieved that I’m not in real labor, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried about making it another nearly 3 months like this.
Have any of you had the pleasure of an irritable uterus? Did anything make it better, or am I in for a rough 11 more weeks?
Read more from Katie on Overflowing Brain!
Follow Katie on Facebook and Twitter for updates!
Go Back To Being Pregnant
6 Comments
agirlandaboy commented on Feb 21 12 at 3:36 pmIrritable here too. Water water water. And sitting on the couch like a lump. :)
Christine commented on Feb 21 12 at 4:45 pmSame here. I had tons of contractions starting at 16 weeks. I definitely had more than four an hour at some points (usually at the end of the day) and was very panicked about it but the doctor said unless they are regular, like every five minutes, and painful, not to worry. For some reason they seemed to slow down the farther along I got…although I think that has to do with the fact that at this point I can’t really discern between the baby moving and the contractions. Don’t worry, you really will get used to them and they won’t bug you anymore. Btw I thought I was in for an early delivery because of all the contractions and yet here I am on my due date (today!) and nothing…not even a centimeter dilated.
El commented on Feb 21 12 at 10:29 pmI had an irritated uterus with my last. Nothing but sitting and drinking water helped at all, and most times that didn’t help. Last time I went to l&d they told me how many contractions I was having and how strong they were. I was so relaxed and surprised cause I wasn’t feeling them. They were nothing compared to what I dealt with most days, all days. It lasted my entire last trimester, and I was so happy to finally deliver and be done with them!
Diera commented on Feb 22 12 at 10:26 amI had tons of BH contractions with both pregnancies and went two weeks late the first time, delivered on my due date the second time, so at least for some of us it seems to be ‘normal’. If I’d been told to come in if I had more than 4 an hour I would have lived in L&D for approximately half of each pregnancy! I basically just got used to them.
Allison commented on Feb 22 12 at 11:01 amWelcome to the pissed off uterus club!!
Remember this: I started having regular contractions with BOTH boys at 27 weeks. We were uber aggressive with Luca – terbutaline pump, bed rest, shots the works. Had him at 38 weeks – c-section b/c he never dropped!
Leo: 27 weeks contractions: Went less aggressive. Weekly progesterone shots. And a pill I never really took because it made me feel faint (same one H took, can’t think of name.) Was told bed rest – didn’t pay much attention, b/c I have a three year old! Only relaxed when I started feeling them hardcore. Didn’t have him until 38 weeks…again c-section.
Never went into labor either time!! Doc thought I may. Turns out now, he just thinks my uterus is irritable!
My cervix was soft, slightly dilated…other than that…we were fine and it never really progressed further.
SO SCARY! I’m sorry you are going though this!! It’s the worst. Worrying all the time and counting the weeks.
HANG IN THERE FRIEND!!
xo
n commented on Feb 23 12 at 1:33 amwater, water, and water. (and i had four days of prodromal labor before baby arrived!)
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Aela Mass 
Casi Densmore-Koon 
Rebekah Kuschmider .jpg)
CaitlinHTP (Caitlin Boyle) 
Michelle Horton 
Ceridwen Morris 
Katie 
Devan McGuinness 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
6