Labour and Delivery Again - Irritable Uterus?

[babysprout]

Hi Everyone

I am new here.  I spent last night in L&D again (the first time being Sept 11). I had about 25-30 contractions through the day and they seemed to get stronger in the evening. My cervix is still closed and no signs of preterm labour - thank God. The OBs tell me they are not comfortable making the assumption that it is just an irritable uterus at this stage in the pregnancy - 25 1/2 weeks - since it is too soon for me to go into labour, but that it's likely that this is what is going on. They want me to continue to come in for monitoring if I have alot of contractions, if they are close together and if they feel stronger. I really don't want to spend another night in L&D and I have a feeling, based on the last week, that these contractions aren't going to suddenly go away.

My question, has anyone else been told they have an irritable uterus? How many contractions do you have in a day? What helps stop them? When mine get going, nothing seems to stop them although being up and about yesterday seemed to make them worse. I get so stressed when I have that many in a day and some of them are downright uncomfortable. I wouldn't call them painful...like what I would expect from labour pains...but they are like menstrual cramps.

I was having about 5 per day for about a month or longer but in the last week I have had anywhere from 10-30 per day and I don't understand why the sudden increase. If anyone has ANY advice, suggestions, ideas, etc I am all ears!

Thanks!

Ev

[nurse12hr]

Hi
What we worry about is more than 6 contractions per hour in most cases.

Things you can do is spend a LOT of time resting on your side, increasing fluids (not tea or pop, but plain old water or half strength Gatorade) to the tune of 8-10 large glasses a day.  

If you smoke, stop.

Keep stress to a minimum.  Eat nourishing foods, and a healthy balance of different foods.  

If your doc feels you are truly at risk for PTL they probably have you avoiding intercourse or orgasms, too.  

Ok, so now you are set for the life of a nun, right?  In truth, you can do all of the above and STILL have contractions.  But all you can do is try, and keep in close contact with your doc following your cervical status.

keep us posted!

[nickpooh2319]

I had the same problem at about 23 weeks and was told to lay down as much as possible drink lots of water and empty your blatter constently.  This helped me and I still had about 5-10 a day but I just did what they said and now Im 38 weeks and 4cm. dialated 100% thinned out and have been to the ER twice with false labor contractions and sent home.  So now Im just waiting to go into real labor or for my water to break then they can't send me home:) Hope everything goes well for you!!!

Nikki

[eshores23]

I would take it easy.  I started having contractions early on and of course felt stupid making a big deal about them, so I never really mentioned them to the ob.  Activity definitely made them increase--being up on my feet, walking, etc.  My water broke around 33 weeks and I ended up delivering about 35 weeks with a healthy baby girl so everything was fine.  But had something gone wrong I know I would have blamed myself (although I may not have been able to make it better)--so just take it easy and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy--at least it is a good excuse for your husband to do everything for you!!