Contractions again?

Yep, my contractions started about 1:30-2:00 this afternoon, right after I went on a short little walk with Courtney. They were pretty consistent again and by the time 3 or so rolled around, I couldn't walk anymore! I was really anxious to go the doctor at 4 and see if they were doing anything or not. (and just for the record, we are having Uncle Night tonight and I am hosting playgroup in the morning, so I had to clean this afternoon too! But with contractions where I can't walk, I can't do much. Thankfully Matt and Courtney helped and the place is clean!)

So, I go to my midwife appointment at 4 and I asked if she would check me. I will be 36 weeks on Friday, so they always want an idea of what you are doing anyway. I told her I have been contracting all afternoon again and I had contractions on Saturday for 3 hours. She checked me and I am not dilated, not effaced, nothing!! She said I am exactly where I should be for 35 weeks. I am glad because I didn't want this baby to come early- 1. for health reasons and 2.because we have nothing ready for the little guy (not even a carseat yet!).

She said that I probably have an irritated uterus (and yes, this is a syndrome!) After doing some research online, I found this definition:

1. “an 'irritable uterus' means simply that your uterus contracts without causing any changes in your cervix, or labor.” (Childbirth.org)
2. “’Uterine irritability’ is a term used to describe the phenomenon that prior to the onset of labor, the uterus can contract in a disorganized fashion (during pregnancy),” explains Dr. Laura Klein, an OB-GYN at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “Rather than strong contractions that come and go every few minutes there can be kind of a constant low level twitching of the muscle.” Most of the time these contractions are simply a nuisance and don’t lead to labor. (Babyzone.com)

When looking at what to do, I found this information:

The ultimate cause of IU is unknown at this point and no research has been conducted to provide information regarding the triggers of IU. Based on our group of IU sufferers’ anecdotal reports the most commonly reported triggers are (1) activities, such as lifting heavy things, walking, standing, exercising, and (2) health related issues, such as dehydration, a full bladder, stress, hydronephrosis, urinary tract infection, may all trigger the occurrence of IU. In addition, few IU sufferers also reported that wearing tight pants, and being out of shape may cause IU. One of our objectives is to begin the effort of collecting additional information about IU. A survey to collect information from IU sufferer is currently underway.

(taken from http://www.irritable-uterus.com/)

So in other words, they are Braxton Hicks contractions. My midwife said today one of the most important things was to stay hydrated. I told her that I drank 3 bottles of water today while they were going on and they still didn't stop. She thought that was because it takes awhile for the water to hydrate my body. I thought that was interesting! 3 hours though?

One of the main concerns with these contractions is that they will cause a pregnant mom to go into preterm labor, but since I am past 35 weeks, they would let me have the baby if they turned into real contractions. With my history though, my midwife thought that I would probably still go overdue. She thinks these really don't have anything to do with labor, but that everything is just "irritated." Nice! Just once I would like to deliver before my due date! (or even ON my due date!)

On a different note, I went and got my platelet count checked again today and they are up to 113,000. Yay for higher platelets! They were 94,000 three weeks ago. They want them above 100,000 for delivery, so they are going to check them every week from here on out! Hopefully they will stay up and I can avoid steroids.

4 1/2 weeks go until official due date.