Labor Scare!!!

Yikes, I had my first preterm labor scare. A nasty tummy bug has been ravaging my family, and it hit me the middle of last week. I couldn't keep anything down, not even a sip of water. OF COURSE Chad had to be out of town for two days, so fortunately my mum-in-law helped out with the girls. There wasn't much to do for me, though, so I basically sat in a chair and only got up to throw up. Talk about miserable!!! By the second day I was, of course, dehydrated, and the contractions started. I was hoping they weren't anything serious, and I was just counting the hours till Chad got home!!! By the time he got there, they were 15 minutes apart and not stopping. We called the doctor and explained the situation, and they said I could try to hydrate myself or get to the hospital and get an IV. Since they weren't increasing in intensity, they said I could try for two more hours to rehydrate if I didn't want to go to the hospital. My mom was getting off work at 10:00 that night, so I asked her to stop by and check on me. If the contractions didn't let up, she offered to stay with the girls. Chad is quite the pro at hydrating, since this is something he dealt with a lot early on in the pregnancy, and within the first hour the contractions slowed down to 30 minutes apart. He knew just how much diluted Gatorade and ice chips to give me. Not too much that I would start vomiting again, but enough to get the job done. Finally they slowed to an hour apart. The next day I went to see Dr. Bryant, and they found I had effaced(?) a little bit, so the contractions had been "real." Yikes! Anyway, he told me to stay lying down (I guess sitting up had made it worse, since it puts pressure on your cervix. Oops.) avoid any solid food, take my anti-nausea pills, and DRINK DRINK DRINK. Again, he suggested an IV, but said he thought Chad was doing a good job getting me rehydrated if I'd rather stay home. (Which I did.) I had had 16 contractions the next day, and only about 5 yesterday, so I'm guessing we are out of the woods! One of my medical field readers will have to tell me, since I forgot to ask the doctor, can you go backward once you've started effacing? Or will I just have a shorter cervix now till the actual labor? Just curious.

Anyway, like I said, I am feeling better now, keeping down both food and liquids. Just pray that this doesn't happen again - they need to stay in there and bake another couple months at least!