Pre-Term Labor? NO thank you! - Part One

Needless to say it was quite the weekend for the Anderson household. Friday night started just like any other night. Pizza and a movie for the kiddies and then a grown-up movie for Josh and I. (Captain America, eh... not too impressed. Glad I didn't waste money on seeing it in theaters.) At about 9:30 or so I started having some contractions, which isn't all that unusual for me - I get them on occasion. They weren't all too bad, though I did have to breathe through some of them. I thought I heard something about if you are having Braxton Hicks then you should get up and move and they should go away. Tried it. Didn't work. Now what? Don't freak out, I tell myself. So I tried to remain cool, calm and collected. I was the picture of ease.
It wasn't until about 10:30 that I really started to worry. This was when my lower back started to hurt with and between each and every contraction -which were coming every 5 minutes at this point.Call me crazy, but I wasn't too concerned about the contractions because they weren't all that painful. It was my back that was the problem. At eleven o'clock Josh and I went to bed. I thought that laying down might help... and I couldn't have been more wrong. While laying in bed I downloaded a free app that times the duration and frequency of your contractions, while also keeping track of start and stop times for each one. AWESOME! So, I started keeping accurate track. And it made me a little nervous because they were almost dead on every 3 minutes for over an hour. I swear, you could have set a clock by them! This is when I got nervous. My back pain was excruciating, and the contractions... not so much. If I wouldn't have had the back pain, I probably wouldn't have worried. I know, I know... shame on me, I got the lecture.
You would think that after 4 kids I would know what labor feels like. But you see, I'm a little weird. Labor doesn't really hurt for me until I'm about 8 cm dilated. My labor with Blake and Logan both went exactly like my night was going, and then my water ended up breaking early the next morning during both situations. At 31 weeks, I wasn't really wanting to risk getting to that point. I was scared that if I shook it off and just went to sleep (which I doubt I could have) that I would have woken up in a puddle of fluid in a few hours. So, I consulted an expert. After searching the internet for the differences between Braxton Hicks and true labor and trying to distinguish what I was actually feeling (all the while timing my contractions at every 3 minutes), I decided to give my Doctor a call - which if you know me is rare. I HATE being "that" patient. I think it was about 1:30 am at this point, and I was really starting to get scared. Dr. O happened to already be in the hospital delivering another patient (thank heavens I wasn't the one to wake him up!) and told me to get in there right away. "Yes, sir!" was my only thought.
I hobbled into the bedroom and tried to wake Josh up to let him know what was going on. Oh, this is where I need to note that before falling asleep Josh told me, "tell me now if you think we are going in {the hospital} tonight." My stupid, don't want to be trouble reply was, " I think I'm going to be ok." Back to the story. After three nights staying awake with a sick Logan, Josh and I were really tired. I don't think I need to mention that it was hard to rouse my husband. I think he might have heard me tell him I was leaving to the hospital, but his response was muffled out by his snoring. Poor guy- I could feel his pain... and a whole 'lotta mine! Well, I wasn't going to wait for him, I had places to be. I put on some decent clothes and drove my laboring behind to the hospital. Five contractions later I found myself waddling into L&D only to run smack dab into none other than my amazing OB, Dr. O and a nurse. Halelujah!