My morning at L&D (rather long) and some questions

Well, I just wanted to let you ladies know about my day in the L&D. Woke up at 3am since i had a sleep-gasm (sorry, TMI) which led to a contraction. Drank water and rested on my left side.
For that full hour, I think I had 5-6, so i called the MD on call and was told to go to the L&D if I get 4 or more in the next 30 mins. Went in just the same. I was not dehydrated at all. I just had an extremely irritable uterus. Just to make sure, they did an FFN which came back negative and an ultrasound to measure cervix which was at 3.1 cm. Still long but has decreased in length. No funneling whatsoever thank you God! I elected not to have the pelvic exam since I know it will add onto the irritability that I already have, plus they said the cervix measurement looked pretty good. My nurse however has noticed some contractions that I was having which were regular so she gave me a shot of terbutaline and another pill to counter the effects of the terb. Man! Those drugs were the best. It made my uterus soooo relaxed! They said it's not PTL though but threatened PTL. Never though there's such a thing. I'm now on self-imposed modified bed rest as I have been for the past 5 weeks. Hopefully, things will be calmer now.

And now for the questions:
1.For those that have/had uterine irritability, what did you do to prevent this or stave off this irritability.

2.Do you have these late night/early morning contractions? It seems according to the L&D nurse that this is fairly common, i.e. contractions while sleeping. This sort of freaks me out. I rarely get contractions during the day (maybe 5 total).

Hope all is well with you all!

(Sigh!) The joys of a twin pregnancy.

Marie
25w5d

 

Well, I just wanted to let you ladies know about my day in the L&D. Woke up at 3am since i had a sleep-gasm (sorry, TMI) which led to a contraction. Drank water and rested on my left side.
For that full hour, I think I had 5-6, so i called the MD on call and was told to go to the L&D if I get 4 or more in the next 30 mins. Went in just the same. I was not dehydrated at all. I just had an extremely irritable uterus. Just to make sure, they did an FFN which came back negative and an ultrasound to measure cervix which was at 3.1 cm. Still long but has decreased in length. No funneling whatsoever thank you God! I elected not to have the pelvic exam since I know it will add onto the irritability that I already have, plus they said the cervix measurement looked pretty good. My nurse however has noticed some contractions that I was having which were regular so she gave me a shot of terbutaline and another pill to counter the effects of the terb. Man! Those drugs were the best. It made my uterus soooo relaxed! They said it's not PTL though but threatened PTL. Never though there's such a thing. I'm now on self-imposed modified bed rest as I have been for the past 5 weeks. Hopefully, things will be calmer now.

And now for the questions:
1.For those that have/had uterine irritability, what did you do to prevent this or stave off this irritability.

2.Do you have these late night/early morning contractions? It seems according to the L&D nurse that this is fairly common, i.e. contractions while sleeping. This sort of freaks me out. I rarely get contractions during the day (maybe 5 total).

Hope all is well with you all!

(Sigh!) The joys of a twin pregnancy.

Marie
25w5d

 

Your post sounds extremely familiar to my own experiences the last few weeks. I have noticed more contractions at night also, I will wake up to go to the bathroom and get a drink and have 5-6. Mine are hard to measure though because my uterus will contract and stay contracted for 5+ minutes at a time, so alot of times I am not sure if it is a new contraction yet or the same one that hasn't relaxed yet.

I also have had irritable uterus, the first time I went to L&D
I just pound the fluids, lay on my left side and try and relax until it goes away.
The only thing I know to prevent it is to make sure you are staying hydrated and rest as much as possible, which it sounds like you are already doing.

I know this doesn't help much except to know you are not the only one!

 

During my 27th wk I ended up at L&D twice for regular contractions and an irritable uterus. The 1st time at L&D they did the FFN test and it was nega tive. I got a shot of Nubain. The 2nd time at L&D which was the next day they gave me Procardia/Nifedipine to relax my uterus. I'm now on Nifedipine pills every day to keep my uterus relaxed and prevent PTL. I will be 30 wks tomorrow and my OB says he will keep me on the Nifedipine until I'm 36 wks. Maybe you can ask your OB about this medicine. It doesn't have the side effects like Terb.

HTH...

Michelle
EDD 3/17/07

 

I guess I have this uterine irritability too. It's scary for me, because of what happened in my last pregnancy. Anyway, it seems like I notice more contractions from activity, so I basically just try to take it easy and put my feet up. I notice more when I go to bed...or early morning too...wonder why that is? I woke up at 5:00 this morning to use the bathroom and then couldn't get back to sleep because I had several contrax in a row. I told my peri that I seem to get them more when I lay down for a nap as well. He just smiled and said it was probably ligament stretching since laying on your side is supposed to help. Well, I KNOW it's a contraction...my whole uterus is hard! During the day I mostly seem to get them if I wait too long to empty my bladder, but I think I do have more than 5 in a day. It's very frustrating, but at my last peri appointment my cervix actually measured over 6 cm! It was done abdominally, so I'm not sure how accurate it was.

Anyway, hang in there!

 

Sorry for all you are going through but is sounds like generally speaking things are good.

I think it is normal for the contractions to kick up at night becauese your fluid intake goes down dramatically. Dehydration can definitely increase irritability and your fluid levels are definitely going to go down while you are sleeping. The two things that helped my irritability were drinking more fluids than I thought I could stomach during my waking hours and making sure my bladder was completely empty. Alot of times pregnant women think they are emptying their bladder but because of the position of the baby etc they really aren't. You might try leaning forward when you think your bladder is empty to ensure it really is.