Mmmm, one of those 'how long is a piece of string' things hun

For me, I thought it was sudden, my waters broke, an hour later cx started, and DS was born 13 hours after that. But in hindsight, it was easy to see I was going to go into labour, I was soooo out of it that day. Flushed, off with the fairies, I felt like everything was in slow mo, I cried for hours for absolutely no reason. I'd only just perked up about 30 minutes before my waters broke. I think if I had been close to my EDD I may have paid more attention to those signs, but as I was 35 weeks it didn't occur to me that I was about to go into labour.

You just don't know. You could have days of prelabour, or you could be holding your baby by breakfast time. I hope for your sake it's the latter, but whichever it is you're going to do a great job!!!!

ETA From personal experience, I would have to agree that you do know when it's the real deal (although I am aware that it's not always the case for everyone). You really do know when you're in labour!