Hydration, Stress, or Just Too Much?

Last Saturday I had my first "scare" in the pregnancy. After being on the go for most of the day, Kim and I took Bagheera on a little hike. We were out for about an hour, then came home, made dinner, and were sitting down to a movie. I was getting Braxton-Hicks contractions. Not a big deal, as the doctor had told me that would happen every now and then. But I realized that I was getting an awful lot of them. Then I realized they were coming very periodically, about 12 minute apart. Now, I knew I wasn't going into labor or anything (they definitely weren't strong enough to birth a child!), but I was a little worried that this might be a sign of premature labor tendencies. I got nervous...

Sunday I thought I was taking it easy, however I wound up with more B-H contractions. These weren't so close together, but still quite a few of them. I was nervous that I would wind up on bed-rest, and I would surely kill someone if that happened...

Kim and I started researching the B-H contractions. We found that dehydration can be a cause of them. Maybe I hadn't had enough water on Saturday? Maybe my very stressful week that I had just ended at work was taking more of a toll on me than I thought? Maybe I had to change my life habits for the rest of my pregnancy and be a bit more lethargic?? Yikes!

Kim and I decided to test a few things out. First, I started resting more - like hanging out in the living room and reading magazines instead of finding things to do around the house. Next, I told my boss that I was going to try to keep my stress levels down a little more. (Yea, we'll see if anything changes there. I'm not very good at letting things slide.) And finally, I decided that not only would I have to drink more water, but I may have to drink something like Gatorade or the likes as well since my body was being so weird about the hydration.

So, after a week of trying these things, I have found that the B-H contractions are decreased and back to what the doctor described - once in a while. I still haven't figured out the exact cause, but I'll be monitoring a little more closely what I drink and stress about. And maybe I'll actually sit and read a few more nights out of the week while my wonderful husband cooks dinner. :)