This has been happening to me for the past few days. I saw my OBS on Wednesday and he did an internal and my cervix was still closed. Later that day I was getting more intense but irregular period like cramping and some pink tinged mucuos but thought that it was probably b/c OBS had a 'look'.
Yesterday I again had on and off cramping and last night from about 9.30pm I started cramping badly, had blood stained mucous. I couldn't sleep, panadol and a heat pack didn't help. I started timing these cramps, which varied from 20 mins, 14 mins and the quickest being 11 mins. Then at about 3.30am this morning, they slowed down and I haven't had cramping since! So frustrating! I really thought I'd be going to the hospital this morning but it must be just pre-labour, so I am assuming that I'll have this baby in the next few days.... I googled to see if there is an indication of how long this could go on for and the only thing I could find was from my ante-natal classes that said pre-labour can be btw 8-16 hours! Ohhh, here is another cramp!