Ectopic heartbeat - do you sometimes have them regularly?

I'm 36 and 2 years ago I had my first "attack" of an irregular heartbeat (skips a beat then thuds and you can feel it in your neck). Went to hospital - no problems found. Didn't have it again until 6 months or so ago but a few times. Several weeks ago it reappeared again but once or twice a week 30+ times a day. I went to the docs and she thinks it may be an ectopic beat and I have an appointment in 2 weeks time to have a 24 hour machine put on me (but I don't think this will help as it's not every day). This morning I woke up and it was every 4-5 seconds for about an hour which was very unnerving as it made me catch my breath because my breathing wasn't in sync with my heartbeat. It's now every 20 seconds - 2 mins so not as bad at the moment. Does anyone else have this problem and this regular? I haven't had it this bad before but don't want to panic. I know they say cut back on caffeine etc but I drink 1 cup of coffee a day, don't smoke and rarely drink so I can't think what other pleasure to cut out on and it won't be chocolate! Professional advice and/or advice from people with same problem would be great thanks. I would like to know from a doctor how common this is and if I should go back to the docs again before I have the monitor put on in 2 weeks time?