Short little Trip

Spent the afternoon at the hospital rather than at work. Contractions just would not stop, despite medication. The doctor doesn't seem all that concerned at this point, and says to stop the medication alogether after next week. The only reason, according to her, that we're even bothering to slow things down is that we live in a small town whose pediatricians like to work on babies 36 weeks and older, rather than 35 weeks. The contractions got as close as 30-60 seconds apart for about a half an hour or so, and spaced to about 3-5 minutes apart with a double dose of medication by the time she sent me home. My question is.... if ONE minute apart and really strong isn't real labor, HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHEN IT'S THE REAL THING?????? If 3-5 minutes apart is "go ahead and go home", then I'm clueless as to when it's appropriate to go IN to the hospital. Especially since I'm supposed to have a C-section, and a "team" needs to be assembled before delivery -- I would just like to know how to tell when I need to go to the hospital, and when I should just stay home and "hack" these contractions that don't appear to be causing any dilation. My clue used to be "if they get stronger and closer together", but apparently, that doesn't seem to be it, either. So, really, I guess when the baby starts coming out on her own, I'll know it's the real thing, tell her politely to stop because the hospital doesn't allow her to be born by that route, and then procede to check myself in for surgery. Do I sound crabby? Yes. Crabby.