At just over 29 weeks, I started experiencing minor braxton hicks contractions. I assumed it was all normal, they were irregular, didn't really hurt, just felt like a tightening in the top of my belly and some minor period like cramps. Then three days ago, they started to become painful. I had to go sit in the hot shower with the water running on my belly to take the pain down, and eventually they went away and I didn't think too much of it.

Yesterday, I went back to work like everything was normal (I'm a massage therapist) and I ended up getting a patient that was close to 7 feet tall with quite dense tissues. I had to get in there so deep! It was exhausting. Shortly after, the contractions came back, but they were very close together. I was getting them every 5-10 minutes, lasting 30 seconds to a minute, but I still had to finish my day and see three more patients.

I contracted from about 1:00 to 6:30 before I was able to make it into the hospital. When I made it in, they had slowed down a bit, maybe one every 15 minutes? They layed me down for a non-stress test and when they didn't get any on the monitor, they told me they would take a urine sample and send me home. I got up from the bed to go into the bathroom, and had one of the worst ones yet. The nurse felt it and it seemed bad enough for her to call in the Ob that was on call.

He got there about half an hour later and checked my cervix (which was thankfully still closed) and for leaking fluid (negative!) My urine sample showed white blood cells, meaning a probable UTI, and he decided that was probably what was causing the contractions along with overdoing it at work and started me on fluids and antibiotics.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. Him checking me was very... rough, let's call it. And the nurses thought that perhaps that was what made my contractions speed up. I started getting them every 2-5 minutes, lasting about a minute to a minute and a half each, and they were severe enough that I was having trouble breathing through them. The Ob consulted with a specialist, and they decided to keep me over night for observation, continuing to push fluids and doing non-stress tests every 4 hours.

I was able to get some sleep, and my last test showed that they've slowed down to about every 20 minutes, and they're about half as severe as they were last night. The Ob should be back in a couple more hours to check me again, but I think I'm in the clear! At only 30+6, I'll probably have to be finished with work, which will be hard on us since I don't get any paid medical or maternity leave. But I'm so thankful my little girl's safely in my belly and doing so well!