Just a little scare...

Well we had our first reality check last night about how close we could be to having these babies! On Thursday I hadn't been feeling all that great (tired, crabby, anxious about reaching the 28-week mark, what's new?) so I took a nap. We were going to go out that evening and do some more mini-van shopping (how cool!) but I just wasn't up for it. So, I was laying in bed watching TV when I starting noticing the occasional tightening of my belly. There was no discomfort, really, just my belly turning hard as a rock, then releasing after a minute or so. At Jeff's insistence I started to time how far apart they were. They were very irregular but I was having several an hour. Again at Jeff's insistence (thank goodness) I had the doctor paged about 9pm. When she called she wanted me to try one thing before coming in to the hospital. I was to take 2 extra strength Tylenol (as a muscle relaxant), drink a liter of water (not kidding), lie down for 30 minutes and keep my bladder empty (after drinking a liter of water and one of the babies using my bladder as it's favorite toy? Right!). In any case I dutifully followed the orders and gave it a try. She said sometimes the uterus can become irritated from all the kicking and cramp up, and this was an attempt to relax the muscle. If that didn't work after 30-45 minutes, I was to go to the hospital. Well, no luck. So off we go to the hospital at a little after 10pm. We arrived at the birth center (didn't like that name...not ready to give birth YET!) and got set up in a room for monitoring. They attached 4 monitors to my belly - one for each baby and one to see if I was contracting. All the babies were fine (one even had the hiccups), heartrates good, etc. I was indeed contracting, but they weren't huge. They also checked my cervix - still closed. I learned during this process that contractions themselves are not a sign of labor - they are sign that labor could start. It's the open of the cervix that is the real concern. So...relief! After another hour or so of monitoring just to be sure, and another muscle relaxant which made me slightly ill, I was released. Got home around 1:30 and crashed. Well, the incident has sufficiently scared both of us. As of today I'm starting a strict routine that includes one or two required "resting" times per day. I was still providing some support at my job but am going to cut that off as well so I can use my active time for baby-related stuff. We are going to keep these guys in!!!