This weekend we had a bit of a scare. On Friday night baby was moving around a lot. Much more than usual, and that's saying something, since she is always moving. After I while I started having braxton hicks contractions. They were strong and wouldn't stop. After about a half hour, I started timing them, because to me it just felt like they were happening too often. They were coming every 3 to 5 minutes and were more uncomfortable than any braxton hicks contractions I had had before this (I have been having them since week 15, so I'm pretty used to them).
After about an hour and a half of non-stop contractions, I was worried about pre-term labour and called my midwife. She suggested I drink a lot of water to make sure I wasn't dehydrated, and have a snack, since I hadn't been feeling well earlier in the evening and hadn't eaten too much. I followed her directions and went back to bed, I did feel better, and the contractions weren't as strong. I guess eventually they went back to their normal frequency.
On Tuesday we went for an extra ultrasound. I pushed a little to get it, worried that something was wrong with me or the baby. My midwife was pretty supportive though and we had talked many times over the course of the weekend with her checking in to make sure everything was okay.
My midwife suspected a bladder infection, but I didn't really feel any symptoms of that. We checked anyways, and that came back clear.
The ultrasound came back fine, my cervix wasn't shortening or funneling in anticipation for labour. The baby looked healthy and was the perfect size for her age. Everything has settled down again and I'm so happy that we are both okay! Baby was in a different position (now head down), so we are assuming that she made the transition on Friday night when all the craziness was happening. On Saturday I started being able to feel her moving in my lowback / tailbone area. I had never felt her there before and continue to feel her there now. It all lines up to her just being very active and finding a new place to rest.
Baby wasn't breathing during the ultrasound yet (don't worry, that's normal at this age, she gets her oxygen from me!), but she was trying to suck her thumb and had the hiccups. I could feel her hiccuping and see her moving at the same time on the ultrasound tv. That was pretty cool.
The ultrasound photos aren't nearly as good these days. She is just getting too darn big (so am I for that matter!). She is still just over 1 pound, I can't imagine what I will feel like when she puts on another 6-7 (or more!) pounds. I have already started feeling more uncomfortable, especially in the evenings. We moved all our furniture around in the tv room last night to give a more comfortable place to knit and watch tv. Everything is in disaray here with the continued construction, but I'm trying to be patient because we are seeing good progress.
