Rough/scary night

My first trip to the L&D floor! (Labor and delivery...) My contractions started like they had the previous 2-3 times and I tried ignoring them. Finally I started keeping track of them around 7 o'clock. They were coming every 8 minutes so I downed about 40 oz. of water and lied down for an hour and a half. At 8:30 they still hadn't subsided and back pain was starting, so I called the nurse line to ask them what to do. They put me through to the on call doctor who asked me to come in. I was monitored for almost 2 full hours and the contractions didn't stop. They actually got stronger! At one point I really had to stop and concentrate because the pain got pretty bad. The doctor did an exam and thankfully I am not dialated at all. She also did a fetal fibronectin test, which can tell what percentage you are at for delivering prematurely. (The test is either positive or negative - positive meaning a 15-20% chance of delivering in the next 2 weeks.) That came back negative, which means that I have a 1% chance of delivering in the next 2 weeks. (She also said nothing is 100%, so if anything changes to come in right away). So we finally got to go home about 1 a.m. and I was told to take the rest of the week off of work. (Work has been great with all of this.) I'm still contracting this morning, but nothing has changed about them since yesterday so I'm just trying to relax.

It was definitely a new experience being there. I had anxiety and fear come over me that I was not expecting. That was a little scary - thinking maybe I can't do labor!! But I know at the time God will give me the strength to do this, but I was not prepared for last night.

The good news is baby was a trooper through all of this. His heartrate stayed consistently normal and I think he was a little excited at the thought of almost coming out - it felt like he was throwing a party inside my stomach. :)

Heading back to bed now...TTFN!