Emma Scares Mommy

Here's the scoop on Baby Emma. I woke up around 5 this morning with some weird tightening in my stomach, better known as Braxton Hicks contractions. Supposedly these are "false labor" just to prepare the uterus for actually having the baby. I've had them before every once in awhile which is common. They are painless, just weird. Well this morning, I was having quite a few within an hour. Needless to say, as a first time mom, I sort of freaked out! A friend of mine experienced the same thing and I remember her saying the doc told her to drink lots of water. I chilled for the next two hours, drinking water like a camel. The contractions seemed to slow down but I called the doc anyways to be safe. They told me if I had four or more contractions per hour for two hours straight, then I needed to come into labor and delivery. They said most likely I did too much this weekend and didn't drink enough water with the increased temperatures, causing me to be dehydrated. Both of these are the leading causes of these contractions. Emma seems to have simmered down now. Just have to rest, drink LOTS of water, and monitor things today, but it seems as though she was just trying to give me a little scare! It is really hard as a first time mom to know when to be paranoid and when not to be! Larry and I have all these conversations about how we will parent and what not, but clearly lil' miss thang is letting us know already who is the boss!