29 weeks preggo.

Well we've had quite an eventful week; but mostly weekend.

I dont remember if I felt rib kicks last week or not, but I am definitely starting to feel random rib kicks here and there now. My stomach is getting much bigger which also means the stretch marks are stretching. I remember when they first appeared and they were very short and I was wishing I didnt have them. Now, I just wish they would stop growing. I feel like they're going to be like 8-9 inches long at the rate I am going! It's pretty depressing, I won't lie. It seems like every day they are longer than the day before.

Yesterday was our most eventful day of the week. We went to go look into buying a new car. I don't really feel like telling the whole story again but it ended up with the sales person yelling at me, Morgan yelling at him, them cussing eachother out, me being afraid Morgan was going to get punched in the face by this sales person. Both Morgan and I were not surprisingly worked up. My hands were shaking and I could feel my heart racing. I laughed on the way home saying that I was surprised the situation did not put me in labor. 5 minutes later, I had menstrual cramps.

We got home I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. So, I went to lay in bed and drink some water because I felt like my cramps were getting worse and my back was starting to hurt. While laying down, I noticed that I was starting ot have contractions. I just sort of shrugged them off at first because I've had them off and on throughout the last couple months. Well, after drinking a lot of water and laying on my left side, they weren't going away. I started to time them and realized they were coming every 3 minutes. This started to worry me. I knew that it was normal to get contractions here and there but knew it wasn't a good thing to have them forming a pattern, and they were doing just that.

So, I called my midwife and told her my symptoms; that I had a little blood, had been contracting every 3-4 minutes for the last 45 minutes and had some cramping both in my abdomen and lower back. She suggested that I drink more water and take a warm bath and then come in. I took a quick bath and felt better while I was in the water. I thought that my contractions were going away and was ready to call her and tell her I was not going to come in, as I was better. I got out of the bath and started to get dressed and had another contraction. I figured it was better safe than sorry, that I was probably just dehydrated but I should go in.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors. I asked Morgan to look at the printout to see if I was having contractions and I was - so the waterworks started. They were getting worse; the pain, the pressure and the frequency. The midwife came in after about 35-40 minutes of being monitored and the first thing she said was, well you're definitely contracting. I started crying again. She told me that they were going to check my cervical length and if it was short I would be moving floors because I was going to have a baby, if it was medium length they would run some labwork to see if I was going to go in labor within the next 2 weeks and if it was still long, that was the best case scenario and would mean I was not in labor.

Immediately I started thinking about him being born at 29 weeks; how little his body would be, what difficulties he could have, if he would even survive, whether I would be able to stay in the hospital with him for awhile, how we would afford me being out of work if either I was put on bed rest or he was born early, how backed up at work I am and how I need to get caught up before I leave for my maternity leave, whether or not we were ready to be parents just yet, how we didnt even have a diaper at home, how I wasn't ready to be in labor, wouldn't be able to finish my birthing classes, whether Morgan was ready both to be a dad and a support system during labor and delivery, and about every other thought that one could imagine.

So, they did an exam and took a sample to run through the lab if my cervix ended up being of medium length. It was a little painful but wasn't too bad. After that, they called in an ultrasound machine and checked my cervix. The length was 3.2 and both the woman measuring me and the midwife said this was very promising. The midwife told me that I could go home and basically diagnosed me with an "irritable uterus" and that nothing I did or could have done, could've caused this. She said that I may continue to have contractions throughout the rest of my pregnancy and as long as they're not getting more painful, my waters do not break or I do not start bleeding, I am OK. She said it is tricky for me because I was experiencing all pre-term labor symptoms so if I do experience pre-term labor, I will have to distinguish the differences between what I was feeling on Saturday and the new feelings I am experiencing. She said that I can continue on with my activity and do not need to be on any kind of bed rest, which is nice.

I worry now that I won't make it full term, but having an irritable uterus only really increases my chances of having preterm labor about 8 percent more than a non high risk pregnant woman, so that is promising.

But, having contractions that ended up being only a minute to a minute and a half apart was quite a scary experience. I am glad everything is okay and that this little guy is going to continue to bake.

Today I am feeling pretty good and we decided to pain the nursery. We dont have a light in the nursery so I will probably have to wait awhile before I can see how it turned out since it is always dark out when I get home from work! Total bummer.

Anyhow, time to eat and then study my eyes out.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.