To be honest, and hope not TMI, I felt like I'd eaten something bad. We had been out for dinner the night before. My belly was doing backflips and all sorts.. So my first contractions I thought was "something else" but in fact was my body clearing the way, so to speak, for bubba to come. I didn't think i was having contractions as was 11 days early and it wasn't until the third trip to the loo that I looked at the clock and realised the pains had a definite start and finish and were repeating themselves. Made me sit up and think so I got out of bed and started writing down the time and length of pains. By the third one I knew I was in labour (every 6 minutes and 30-40 seconds in duration at that early stage)...

Emotionally I was a little shocked and it felt surreal that it was actually happening. I was going around the house finding all my last minute stuff to pack (thankfully I had a list on the wall ready of what needed to be thrown in at the last minute e.g. tooth brush - highly recommended) so I was packing last things waiting for hubby to come home and my mum to come over. Our dog didn't know what was going on but she kept me company as I went into labour at 5am but it was 6am before I realised what was actually going on.

Good luck and enjoy it..