# Dehydration and pre-term labor...this is a warning



## mara16jade

So last Thursday was terrifying. I woke up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep and went to work like any other day. I had my regular monthly check up with my doctor at the medical offices here in town (the actual hospital is about 20-25 mins. away). Got in there, they checked my weight, my BP and my urine and found that it was fine. :shrug:

The nurse takes me back to the room and asks me if I've been having any contractions, bleeding, pains, etc. I said no bleeding or contractions but I've gotten a few odd menstrual cramp type pains under my bump. The nurse said that sounds like contractions. I said I don't know, I never noticed my stomach tensing up or anything. The doctor comes in and reads the notes and sees that I was having some under the bump pains and wants to do an ultrasound and do a swab to check the glue of the cervix. She does the ultrasound and baby is head down already, everything looked great, my fundal height is measuring perfect.

Then she wants to check the cervical length since she thought she felt my stomach go hard while measuring my fundal height. I had no idea, I couldn't feel it. We watched as my cervix changed with the contractions. It got shorter and shorter and was funneling. Funneling happens when your cervix can't handle the pressure of the contractions anymore, and you can start to dilate and efface. We watched as my cervix length went from 3.2 to 2.2 in a matter of seconds during a contraction, and they like to see cervical length to be at 3.5. Before we saw the funneling, the doctor said I'll probably need to stick around until after lunch to to a non-stress test (nst), but as soon as she saw the funneling, she found any nurse who was there and told them to get me hooked up asap. My doctor was worried, and so I began to panic. I asked her if I was really in danger of going into labor and she looked at me and said, "I really hope not, but you are contracting. We'll have a better idea after the nst. But you'll probably have to go to labor and delivery at the hospital and they may need to give you steroids for his lungs in case you give birth soon.". :shock: Que me panicking and everything going through my head in a whirlwind of chaos. 

I was hooked up to their nst for about 40 minutes. Baby was being a hyper and didn't like the monitor so they had to keep finding him since he'd move away. Then they had my DH keep his hand on my tummy and keep the monitor angled at the baby. Baby was not enjoying this. I went on to have quite a few contractions, and then the baby started to have decels in his HB. :cry: My doctor was worried, packed up all my notes, pictures, charts, etc. and told us to hurry to L&D and take everything with us. I was hungry since I had only had breakfast and so I asked if we had time to stop to get food. She looked at me and said, "no, you don't have time, don't stop anywhere". 

We get to the hospital and the nurses and doctor were already waiting for me and knew my story. They got me hooked up to their nst and also had me provide another urine sample. The urine sample at the medical office was ok, not great, but it was ok. The urine sample at the hospital was off the charts horrible. :shrug: The doctor came in and gave me some options and discussed how severely dehydrated I was. Apparently I was off the charts dehydrated. No idea how. I swear I drink water!!! They said they could give me a shot to immediately stop the contractions and then hook me up to an IV to pump fluids in. I told them I'll take the shot, but I'd rather drink water if it'll do the same as an IV. They said the only difference is the IV will hydrate me in about 30 mins. and drinking water might take 2 hours - and either choice was fine by them. So obviously I chose to drink the water. The shot they gave me was WEIRD. They warned me that it'll feel like I just downed a ton of espresso. My HB went from about 85 to 160 in about 30 seconds once the medication kicked in. But it stopped all the contractions (but only lasts an hour). So now I had to drink my many many many jugs of water.

So in the end, my body stopped contracting naturally from rehydrating myself. And it was a huge slap in the face that Baby is going to come, when he wants to come. And as much as we plan for him to come in July, he could decide otherwise. I'm currently drinking more water, but we're both a little shaken up with this whole thing and realized had I not had a monthly check up, I could have gone into full blown labor and the baby might have been here this week.

My co-worker who's sister just had her baby at 33 weeks went into labor due to dehydration. But she was so far into contractions and labor that her water broke and all they could do was get her on antibiotics, give steroids, and wait for the contractions to build into active labor. She had her baby about a week ago by c-section and the baby is in the NICU. :( This sh!t is real ladies. Drink your water!!!!

:hugs:


----------



## JoHio

So glad you and baby are OK hon! I just showed this to my hubby who thinks my dedication to hydration is insane normally, and even more twisted when I'm pregnant. It pays off I guess! (Though, as you said, you can't predict everything!) 

Hugs!


----------



## Spiffynoodles

How scary! I had a preterm labor scare at 29 weeks last time, and it's definitely a slap in the face! So glad that your baby is still snug in there. Thanks for the warning; I'm sure I don't drink enough. :blush:


----------



## Yo_Yo

Oh no Mara :-(

So glad all is ok now. Must have been so scary honey :hugs:


----------



## gidge

wow, thanks for that I definitely don´t drink enough water am downing a glass now! 
Glad everything is ok for you now that must have been so scary.


----------



## Meljenn

That is so scary. I drink what is recommended for you ladies to drink but since I work outside I am supposed to drink double and it has been hard. I think I can do a better job now....(going to get water now)


----------



## BrandiCanucks

Goodness!!! Glad you and Baby are okay. I've been slacking on the water lately, but definitely going to increase my intake too as I've had an increase in Braxton Hicks. Thanks for the heads up!


----------



## mara16jade

It was scary. And to be honest, I was in such disbelief that I was even wondering if the doctors were over reacting. I've now talked to two ladies who had premies due to dehydration, and both babies obviously ended up on the nicu. :nope: Last night we had our labor and delivery class, and the instructor stressed how important water was and how it can cause pre-term labor. :dohh: Guess the doctors weren't over reacting. Ugh. It's just crazy. I never thought it was possible!!


----------



## vickyandchick

How terrifying, glad everything is okay:hugs:
From now on I will be drinking water like a champ!


----------



## BrandiCanucks

I had been drinking 5 bottles of water a day (equal to 10 glasses according to my pregnancy app) before my 3D ultrasound and started slacking afterwards. I'd get at least 3 bottles in a day but my braxton hicks have gotten so much worse and with the warmer weather now too, I'm not sleeping well because I'm parched in the night, but too tired to get up and get a drink. It is quite scary.


----------



## mara16jade

I just thought that if I drank 64oz, which is recommended for the average adult, I'd be fine. :nope: I had zero symptoms of dehydration. Not tired, no "cotton mouth", wasn't thirsty, my urine was pale (think pale lemonade), etc. I was so incredibly shocked when the doctor came to me and said, "on a scale of hydrated to severely dehydrated...you're off the scale severely dehydrated". I must have asked him "really??" like 5x. They even showed me the numbers and my chart. :dohh: I felt FINE, except for once/twice a day I'd get this teeny tiny niggle of a menstrual pain under my bump.

I figured if I could end up in L&D, getting medication to stop contractions, etc. so easily, I had to share it with you ladies. So easy to miss. And such a horrible thing to happen. I can't even imagine if I had not had an appointment that day. Or if I just skipped over mentioning that I had that little AF cramp/pain. I wasn't even going to bring it up. And I wasn't suppose to get an ultrasound or anything that day. It was supposed to be a quick 15-20 min. routine "hi, how are you doing....ok have a nice day" checkup. :dohh:


----------



## Mummafrog

Oh my goodness, so glad you're both okay and things have calmed down :hugs: good luck with the rest of your journey, hopefully this will be the only scare.
I want to thank you for sharing, hydration and drinking enough water is something I SUCK at and my midwife reminds me at every appointment how important it is. I am not in danger of preterm labour now (term tomorrow) but this has given me a kick and I'll try even harder to remember because it's so important for feeling well and keeping baby healthy <3


----------



## cookette

Omg.....uhm, yeah, Im gonna go refill my water bottle now.

So glad they got it stopped!


----------



## cooch

Interesting post. Two days ago I was getting under the bump cramps, only lasted about half an hour and then went away. I have felt really really thirsty, but I've been drinking loads and loads of water. I think it was suggested to me that it was bh as I had no tightenings.


----------



## emicakess

Ugh omg mara that is terrifying! Mara was it you that I compared under the bump pains with a while ago?! I'm kinda panicking now because I have under the bump pains every day but I always check if my stomach is hard and out it never is, so I always assume it's stretching or caused from my SPD! I never thought about bringing it up with my OB because he is so non chalant about everything else and I was afraid he would just tell me it's normal like everything else. I can't really think if it felt like period pains but it's just pain. And I've been feeling really thirsty like I am not getting enough water lately. I dont think I drink enough, the water at my work is nasty (yellow tinted and lukewarm) so I just being my 24 oz water bottle to work, drink all of that and maybe 1-2 more of those at home. Definitely going to drink more water now somehow. 
I am debating now on calling my ob tomorrow about the pains or waiting until Tuesday to tell him at my appointment.


----------



## mara16jade

Hey emicakess, yeah I'd bring it up with him. I honestly didn't think much of the minor pain/discomfort, and I'm glad I mentioned it to the nurse. I wasn't even going to bring it up since it didn't seem to be that big of a deal to me. :dohh: 

I'm really on top of my water intake now!!


----------



## Brightxeyes

Oh wow, I struggled to drink what you should drink every day before pregnant and I do try a bit harder now! 

But I simply rarely *feel* thirsty! I may actually set little reminders on my phone to drink an extra glass of water at certain times of the day to help!

Although I was worried last week when I was in the sun for a while in the day so I drank so much I needed to wee probably twenty times! As it was the hottest weather we had so far since being pregnant!


----------



## WDWJess

Thank you so much for posting this, I know I don't drink enough so needed a wake up call. So sorry you had to go through this though x


----------



## Kiwiberry

I will for sure remember this. Thanks so much for the tip!


----------



## YoshiPikachu

How scary! I had to idea.


----------



## Sun_Flower

*hugs* must have been so scary for you Mara. I had similar at 31 weeks, cramping for a few hours that felt like period cramps. Turns out I'd let myself get too dehydrated as well. It's SO easily done, you don't realise how much you need to drink when pregnant! I'm practically drowning myself in water these days just in case, lol xx


----------



## mara16jade

Yup, lots and lots of water!! lol I get panicky if I run out of water and we're out running errands or something. It so embedded in my brain to drink, drink, drink now. :dohh:


----------

