22 Week Update

I've been having quite a few stomach tightening/braxton hicks contractions this week so I called the doctor this morning and they had me come in. I hate to be paranoid, but when I had that with Layla I thought it wasn't a big deal and it turned out I was dilated to 1.5. Better safe than sorry, right? He checked me this morning and thankfully my cervix it still closed as it should be. I went on bedrest with Layla at 28 weeks, so I'm very thankful that nothing is going on now since I'm only 22 weeks--it is far too early for RV to come out! He did mention I should start to take it easy by avoiding certain activities around 24 weeks (a week from this coming Sunday) just to be precautious. It did turn out that I most likely have the early stages of a urinary track infection which I had when I went on bedrest with Layla too and which can lead to preterm labor and could also be causing some of my stomach cramping. So I am on an antibiotic to help clear that up. Also, when I was in a couple of weeks ago they did a culture to look for certain bacteria that is linked with women that go into preterm labor (about 1/3 of women that go into preterm labor have this bacteria--we don't know if I did last time or not) and my cultures all came back negative. So that's a good thing--it obviously doesn't mean that I won't for sure go into preterm labor nor does it mean that it won't show up in the weeks to come, but it's good for now that they didn't find it. Oh, and RV's heart beat was 153.