QuestionMy name is Corrina, I am 36 weeks tomorrow with my first baby and have my Dr's appointment on Thursday but im kind of worried and am hoping someone can help explain what was going on this weekend.
I live on the coast of CA and this weekend my husband had drill in southern California for the National guard.We drove down there stopping often for a light snack and to stretch and to go to the bathroom.
The day before i left, my Dr did the beta strep test and checked my cervix she said everything looked good and that I was dilated 1 cm.
well that Friday, when we finally got to LA county around noon i started to lose pieces of my mucus plug up until sat morning along with brownish bloody show (which i was told was normal.
Well during this time period (from Friday to sat morning) i was having stronger than normal Braxton hicks contractions along with back pain and heavy menstrual cramping for a good 3 hours.
I did not time them, I thought that I just needed water and to rest so I did so and an hour later they eventually went away.
Later on that Saturday evening when me and my husband were out and about for a few hours these symptoms started up again along with a little bit of swelling in my ankles. things finally calmed down when we went home until about 3 AM the next morning, the cramping woke me up and i started getting light contractions for about an hour.
After that I felt great that whole sunday until we left to go to the la county fair that night from 6pm-about 11pm (I was sitting for a lot of the time) while we were walking about these contractions started up again with the back pains and menstrual cramps and got stronger every time I made any kind of movement.
I sat down and the contraction lasted for at least a minute after that. then they started coming around irregularly pretty strong and my feet got cramped so we left.
Now that im back at home i havnt felt anything like this except for some back pain and medium menstrual cramps that come and go. Sometimes at night i feel a very strong sharp pain in my inner thighs but thats it. im not sure what to think about this? and when i called the on call dr at my health clinic he told my they are typical late pregnancy symptoms but i am looking for a second opinion on this one...
I dont know what was going on and why all this just suddenly stopped except the naggy cramping..?
Thank you for taking the time to read my question!
~Corrina Zarate
AnswerHi Corrina,
I agree with the doctor you spoke to. It is your body preparing for birth, and it's nothing to worry about. Stretching or a warm bath works really well. Another thing to try is to shower on hands and knees allowing the water to hit you in the back. Sometimes women will have periods of contractions that return at a certain point each day or some will seem to have non-stop contractions for the last few weeks. Both are fairly normal.
