Contractions

I thought maybe I could get through this pregnancy without any complications, but alas, I was wrong. I was at work the other day and it happened to be a little stressful at the time and I couldn't really take a full lunch break (welcome to my work life) and I started to get some contractions. I have been having them on and off for weeks now, but nothing out of the ordinary Braxton-Hicks. They never lasted more than 30 seconds or so. But then I got a strong one that wouldn't go away. This freaked me out a bit. I laid down for 15 minutes (which was really hard to do with all the things I needed to do at the time, but I thought I have to put my baby before my patients-total mind trip) and it went away almost right away when I laid down. Then I got up and it returned. So I called my doc and she wanted me to go to L&D for a non-stress test. When she came and talked to me, she said she may have to give me some medication to stop the contractions, but they stopped on their own. She sent me home with instructions to keep my feet up until I have to work in 2 days.
Two days later I went to work and I started having contractions pretty often, so back to L&D I go. I was wheeled into the high risk OB and that made me start to cry. I realized this might be something more that we are looking for. They did an US of my cervix to measure the length and praise God it was nice and long. These contractions were not changing my cervix. So I was advised to change my work schedule from 12 hour shifts to 8 hour shifts and they said if they started to become regular and with a pattern I could follow, then I need to let them know. I will have to see the OB weekly now and take it easy on my day offs.
I have decided that I am not going to freak out about this and view it as my uterus getting strong for the work ahead, and maybe it will equal a shorter labor, and I'm all for that! I just have to listen to my body and drink lots of water. It has been hard to stop doing a lot at home, but I find if I'm not taking it easy, they return pretty frequently. So I have to rely on JJ for a lot of things and that can be difficult. I can't believe this baby is already slowing me down, but I guess I better get used to it!