Braxton Hicks?

Last night after spending some time relaxing with friends, I noticed that my abdomen seemed kind of hard.  This has been happening on and off for a while and the doctor said that they were likely Braxton Hicks contractions and there was no need to worry unless they became frequent (more than 4 in an hour) or painful.  Last night they seemed to be coming rather frequently.  They weren't painful and didn't last long, so I decided to drink some water and lay down to see if they stopped.  Things seemed better and I was able to fall asleep pretty easily, although I was getting pretty worried. 

This morning I woke up around 4 AM to use the bathroom.  As soon as I was up and walking around the contractions seemed to start up again.  They seemed to be coming very frequently.  I tried checking out the internet and the information I had from my doctor's office and it really seemed like I should probably call the doctor.  At 5 AM I called in and waited for the doctor to call me back.  I know I shouldn't worry about this, but I felt bad for having to wake up a doctor with a problem that was probably nothing. 

The doctor called back in a few minutes (it turned out that my actual doctor was on call) and I ran through my symptoms.  She said that it did not sound like pre-term labor and that I should drink water and lay down and rest.  Since this weekend is the triple baby shower, I asked about going out of town.  She said it was up to me and that if things got worse (more than 6 contractions in an hour, lasting for more than a minute) I would need to call her back and likely have to go to the hospital to be checked out.  After laying down for an hour, things seemed to be going well.  I didn't have any more contractions, so we decided to go ahead and go tailgating with the plan that we would head home if I started feeling bad.  Luckily, I felt much better throughout the day.  I still had occasional contractions, but they were very short (less than 30 seconds in length) and didn't seem to be coming as frequently.  I'm still pretty freaked out, but trying to stay relaxed and tell myself that things are going to be fine.  I guess if they keep happening tomorrow I will see if I can get an appointment on Monday just to make sure everything is okay.  Or maybe this baby is less than thrilled about the idea of a triple shower and was hoping to find a way to avoid it too ;)