Symptoms

It started on Christmas Day evening, around 9 p.m. I got terrible contractions, about every 3 minutes...it seemed sometimes like my uterus was hard all the time. I felt terrible pains in my upper abdomen and my hips were sore...and here's something new to me...my feet and hands were swollen (this hasn't happened the other three pregnancies...honestly, I had cankles...very strange) around midnight I was able to get the contractions irregular and finally fell asleep. The 26th I woke up and was sore, but fine. I worked harder than ever to keep on top of my medication and keep the contractions irregular. Swelling in my feet stayed, but my hands went back to normal. No swelling in my face.
The 27th in the evening I started to feel this pressure on my pelvic floor...maybe my cervix? My lower back has a dull ache, and I honestly feel like the kid is going to fall out! Today, the 28th, has been more of the same...back ache, pain on my cervix, nausea and dizziness that comes and goes...honestly I feel like one big walking symptom!
I recognize that all of these things are common pregnancy, but at 31 weeks?! It seems a little soon to be starting with all these, plus the contractions. Part of me is wondering if this is the onset of 'real' labor, or if I'm just more aware this time around than I was with the other children. Not really sure if I should call and see what the nurses think...
We received our statement of benefits from BCBS for our stay from November 18-20th...the total was $8800; we have to pay $3600...I'm thankful that our hospital has a good provider discount with them, but $3600!?! It stinks that its in 2009, if we could have kept it all in 2010 we'd be set with almost having met our deductible and would get to have the kid for "free" when he/she finally did show. I am intelligent enough to know that we need to take the health of the baby into account before finances, but I'm also not going to hop to the Dr. at the first signs either...we just can't afford it! Hence, why I haven't called the nurses...they always seem to tell you to come in as they don't want to be liable if something bad happens.
Well, anyhow, it feels good to have that out there.