This is my first post so bear with me if I'm rambling a bit!
I'm currently 24 weeks pregnant with my second child. My first was born at 28 weeks - we don't know why. I'm being monitored more closely this time around and on Monday (5 days ago) my cervix had shorted from 30mm 10 days before to 25.7mm. I started progesterone pessaries that day. On Thursday I was having pelvic pressure, abdominal cramps and back pain so I went and got checked out at MAU. They did a fetal Fibronectin test which was negative so that's really reassuring and my cervix is closed. But they could feel tightenings in my uterus so they said I've probably got an irritable uterus, they were really vague about what that means and didn't say much more about it except I should rest, not lift anything heavy (including my 2 year old daughter) and go back if the pain gets any worse.
We're now two days on from that and I've been trying to take it easy. I read up about irritable uterus - as much as I could find online which wasn't much - and from what I understand it can give you contractions which are especially brought on by doing too much (hence the restriction on lifting and resting where possible). The contractions don't cause your cervix to shorten or dilate, but they can trigger actual contractions and bring on preterm labour. I now suspect that this is what happened with my daughter as I was getting sensations, not pains as such, but my bump would tighten and hangs shape and the night before I went in to labour I (stupidly) carried a heavy box in from the car and then had bad back pain immediately after.
I guess my question is how does an irritable uterus feel? I'm not really feeling it as contractions but my only experience of labour wasn't typical so I don't really know if I know what I'm looking for - if that makes sense. I'm feeling like I've got period pain, but it's not coming in waves and I'm not getting any sharp pains like you do when you're doubled over in the first day of your period - it's just a constant dull ache in my abdomen and back. If I've been on my feet for a while or had to pick up my daughter (I know, I'm working on it!) I can feel a strain and then afterwards I get that tightening in my stomach which is accompanied by period pain (again, not extreme pain). Is that a IU contraction?
Thanks to anyone who's got any experience of this, I know I sound pretty clueless, I just don't trust my body any more because it doesn't do what it's supposed to!
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Pregnancy
Irritable Uterus
74 replies
user1460834928 · 16/04/2016 20:43
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