A Day At The Hospital

This past Friday started as any other day. I got up to see my hubby off to work and had a lot of expectations for getting things done. I had some breakfast, caught up on some emails and was feeling motivated to work out a bit. I got on the elliptical for a half hour and then did some reps w/ my little 5 lb weights (Ive been doing this the entire pregnancy). I felt really good all through the work out, but shortly after I started getting really bad cramping in my lower left abdomen. It was continual pain w/ sharp pains every once in a while that would radiate in my back. I laid down for about a half hour w/ no relief so I decided to call the Dr. I spoke w/ the nurse on call and she advised me to go to Labor and Delivery to get checked out. Mind you, the baby was still moving a lot, as usual, and there was no bleeding.
When I got to the hospital I had to give a urine sample and they hooked me up to the monitors. I could here the baby's heartbeat which made me feel better. They asked me a series of questions and kept track of the monitors. The nurse told me that everything w/ the baby looked great and she could see small contractions. The pain was not getting any better so they sent me in for an ultrasound. While that was nerve racking, I enjoyed hearing about Baby Rex. The technician said that all his measurements were good, his heartbeat was 158 BPM, and he weighs 3 lbs, 9 oz. How cute is that!?!
The ultrasound showed that things were just right, there were no tears and my cervix was still closed. The urine sample came back showing no issues either. Because I wasn't having more than 4 contractions in an hour, but still having the pain, they concluded that it must be really intense round ligament pains b/c of the rapid growth of my uterus. They gave me some pain meds w/ a script and told me to go to the OB this coming week instead of waiting for my next appt.
Well, by the time I got out of there is was 5:30 and our prenatal class started at 6. Mitch ran home to take care of the dogs and get out of his uniform ( he would be late) and I was to get us something to eat. We ate and listened for the first part pf class and the second part was more hands on. We got to practice labor positions w/ the labor ball (exercise ball). The instructor gave us a bag of ice and when she said, "contraction begins" we had to hold the bag tightly while using our breathing techniques and labor positions to keep our minds off the annoyance of the ice. Fun, fun, fun. I do have to give props to hubby b/c he was so darn cute and doing everything he was supposed to :-).
By the time we finally got home it was 8:30. Needless to say, my expectations for getting things done did not happen. Oh well. Better to be safe than sorry.