Another Trip...

Last night at 2am I got up to take my meds as usual...by 2:30 I started having contractions. They were every 8-10 minutes for an hour, then they got closer together over the next half hour. They were every 5 minutes when I called the doc at 4am, and of course, he said to go right in to labor and delivery. So I called my friend to come over to stay with the kids and we left.

They hooked me up to the monitor right away and the contractions were every 3 to 5 minutes. My doc wasn't available over the weekend so we got the doctor on call. He ordered a fetal fibronectin test which can predict your chance of going into labor over the next 2 weeks, as well as a urine culture. The nurse also checked my cervix, which hadn't changed, thankfully! The contractions continued for a couple hours and he didn't want to give me anything to stop them until the results of the tests came back.

It was frustrating because my doctor would probably not have done the fetal fibronectin test at all since he doesn't rely on them, and neither did our high risk ob that we had seen. He has been more aggressive at stopping the contractions, especially since he knows my cervix has recently changed with not many contractions at all. He would rather stop contractions than risk them changing my cervix more, since there's no way to know when that will happen, and because we don't want to have the baby for a couple more weeks! But since the results were negative for both tests, the doc on call just said I could go home. The contractions had slowed down, but they were still at the point where if I were at home that I should call! So I said, well, when do I come back then? The nurse said if I have them for 2 hours or more to call and come back in. So we went home.

I know my doctor would have kept me there a while longer until the contractions were slower, just to make sure. Being under the care of another doctor that is not as familiar with my history makes me nervous! I can't wait until Monday when my doc will be back around!

But for now, I am glad that the test was negative, that means I am unlikely to deliver in the next 2 weeks. Even though my doc would not change treatment based on that test, it is still somewhat reassuring. And after we got home, the contractions did slow down a little more. So hopefully things will stay settled down for a while yet...we shall wait and see, what more can we do?