Contractions, OH MY!

I now can say that I admire any woman that is able to have a natural vaginal birth and take no medications because after having contractions for the last 3 days, which thank goodness they are dying down today but Ill start at the beginning. This past Thursday and Friday I started feeling uncomfortable with some mild cramping in the lower abdominal area and just been really tired, I of coarse chalked it up to just being 8 1/2 months pregnant and its normal. Saturday came and I was woken up around 540am with some really strong pains in my lower belly, lower back, and hip area. I laid in bed for about 20 minutes and started feeling them often the pain would start as cramping in my tummy travel around to my back and then down my thighs and it was lasting around 45 seconds to a minute. We had our maternity tour at the hospital in a few hours so I started getting ready as I continued to have the pains every 10-15 minutes approx but they  were lasting the same amount of time. After the tour was over Shauna asked the nurse what she thought we should do and she said we should go to labor and delivery to get checked out. Labor and Delivery hooked me up to all the machines and I let them know that because of my possible heart issue I do not want any medication to stop contractions because of the risk of it hurting my heart or causing me distress so they just monitored me. I was having contractions every 5-7 minutes and they were lasting about a minute long, she said that if she was to only look at my strip that it looks like I was in active labor however I wasn't dilated at all so the Dr said he couldn't do anything besides to send me home and if they become stronger and still lasting just as long to come back. We went home and I continued to drink water as well as rest as much as I could. The contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and the pain level did go up so we decided to go back to the hospital, while there she said they were about every 7 minutes and I was still not dilated so she called the Dr back again and he said that unless my contractions were making me double over and in constant tears that I don't need to come back and that he wouldn't consider me in active labor until I get to 4cm which is when he would do the c-section, so home we went. I continued to have pains though out the night then Sunday things started to let up a bit, I was getting some stabbing pains on my right side that felt more like a charlie horse instead of a contraction and I was able to get up and move around and by today I am feeling much better, I'm still crampy and have back pain and I still feel a contraction here and there but definitely not consistent and frequent. This little girl was just testing me and showing me what its like for mommy's to be in labor pain, little stinker. I'm hoping she continues to bake until at least 37 weeks and even making it to her c- section date would be ideal but well see. I feel like she has dropped alittle bit as I have more room to breathe and wonder if that's why I have so much cramping. Gotta keep baking little Miss McKenzie ♥