Ugh. Things have been just too perfect haven’t they? Time to throw a little drama into this pregnancy, but hopefully not too much.
On Monday afternoon, after a day mostly spent relaxing in bed, I noticed I was having a lot of uterus tightening – Braxton Hicks contractions. It was happening frequently enough that I started timing them and noticed they were coming every ten minutes or so and while they didn’t exactly hurt it was starting to make my stomach feel quite sore. It started around 3 or 4pm and went on until about 7pm. I decided not to call the doctor since it went away.
On Tuesday afternoon I was sitting at the computer for a few hours, rushing to finish up an assignment due for my early childhood ed class when around 3:30pm or so I noticed I was having the tightening again. My uterus didn’t always get rock hard every time, sometimes it would just become noticeably tight, but again they seemed to be coming every 8-10 minutes or so. I decided if it didn’t go away by the time I showered and had dinner and relaxed on the couch for awhile I would call the emergency line, but by around 7pm it went away again.
I had an appointment with my OB yesterday so I mentioned it to him and he decided to do a FFN just to put our minds at ease, especially with me going to Hawaii this weekend. The FFN test if negative is very predictive that you will NOT be going into labor anytime soon, but the positive result is more ambiguous. It could mean something or it could mean nothing. When he was taking the sample he said that the swab brushing against the cervix had caused a little blood so not to freak out if I had some spotting or discharge but I saw the sample he took and it looked quite pink.
Of course, I got home and started googling and lo and behold, blood in the sample is very likely to cause a false positive. And, of course, I had zero BH contractions yesterday and today.
I finally spoke with my OB this afternoon and he said he had wanted to wait to call me until he spoke with my MFM and I knew that this couldn’t be good news. He said he was surprised by the result, he had run the test expecting a negative result (based on my symptoms and how my cervix looked when he took the sample – he said it looked close and thick) but it turned out to be positive. However, he and my MFM said they think this is likely to be a “red herring” and said they don’t think I need to do anything unless I start having painful contractions, in which case go to L&D to be monitored. Also, they want me to make sure to mention the positive test at my u/s tomorrow so that the tech checks my cervical length. Assuming no painful contractions and a cervical length above 3cm, they think it’s okay for us to continue on with our Hawaii plans.
It’s just so frustrating because in my gut I really don’t feel like this is anything. I was a little bit worried after Tuesday and my stomach felt so sore from all the tightening, but yesterday was totally fine and let’s face it, the belly is starting to really grow now, noticeably so this week, which can cause BH contractions and all the soreness everywhere.
I think as long as my cervix is nice and long tomorrow, we will feel okay about going on as planned. Obviously if it’s short or even borderline, I think we are just going to cancel and eat the cost of whatever isn’t cancelled in time to recoup deposits. Both my doctor’s are in agreement that the cervix length will mean more than the FFN result so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything is still looking long and closed tomorrow.