False Labor: Week 35

Saturday afternoon I started having contractions around 3:30. Brian started timing them and they were coming every 10 min. and continued for about 2 hours. My doctor told me this is the warning sign I should look for, but I was not convinced that this was the real thing. I called the doctor’s weekend answering service and they said to go to the hospital. Brian and I had already packed my hospital bag about an hour into the contractions so we were ready. Well, I take that back… I am not sure if one is ever really ready when the big day comes. Anyway, we headed off to the hospital. We called my mom who was excited because the 24th is also her birthday. We also called Brian’s family. We decided not to call anyone else until we knew for sure if this was it.



We checked in the hospital triage and they started monitoring. The monitor showed some fairly strong contractions that were coming 8-10 minutes apart. Both babies’ heart rates were strong and indicated no fetal distress. My doctor was not on call this weekend, so his partner came in to check me out. All this work my uterus was doing did not cause me to dilate at all! Surprised and feeling a little foolish for coming all the way to the hospital for false labor I waited for the doctor to tell us what all this meant. The doctor and nurses explained that there is no way to know when it is real or not, but instead of looking for contractions 10 minutes apart I should now look for contractions that are 3-5 minutes apart. Also, I should not wait too long to come to the hospital because they do not want my labor to advance too much before the c-section.

They checked me for dehydration and a urinary tract infection since these can both cause your uterus to contract. I was a little dehydrated. After about an hour of monitoring, the contractions were not stopping so the doctor decided to give me a shot of terbutaline. The shot decreased the contractions fairly quickly. We were discharged after a few hours on monitoring.



I realized from this experience that I was not as ready as I thought I was. At 35 weeks I worried the babies would be too small and need assistance breathing. The doctor said they generally do not try to stop labor for twins after 34 weeks, but I would still like them to stay put for at least another week. I go back to the doctor for my weekly checkup on Tues. It is so stressful waiting for labor!

On a positive note, Brian has been so sweet through all this. Right now he is busy “nesting”! He scrubbed baseboards in the kitchen, and checked all my obsessive lists to make sure we have all the baby business taken care of. He also cooks, and tends to regular chores in the house and in the yard. I am so lucky he does all of this without making me feel bad. My babies are so lucky to have such a caring father.