Hi, I'm new to this sort of thing, but I thought I'd give it a try though & see if anyone out there can offer any advice.

I'm currently 39weeks pregnant with No 2 child. My first son is now 3 years old & was born 6 weeks early by emergency c-section due to placental abruption. I never experienced labour, pre-labour, or baby "dropping" lower in the tummy. So as you can imagine this time around, after 34 weeks, everything I have experienced so far is like a first-time pregnancy.

For the past week or 2 I have had what I think are braxton-hicks (tight tummy, crampy, tummy pains), with the mother of all BH on Sunday night just gone. Had 3 "waves" of pain in quick succession across lower tummy and couldn't move or stand upright. Had to "breath" thru it & it passed after 2 or 3 minutes. But after that things settled down. Now, since yesterday it feels like baby has sunk even lower in my tummy(we orginally thought baby had dropped at 37 weeks) making it really uncomfortable to walk, sit, sleep etc. I've had an achy back all morning, and my tummy has been tight on & off. Baby isn't doing much at the moment, but then is generally more active at night when I'm trying to sleep, LOL. I finished cleaning the windows in my house yesterday. Was considering washing the outside weatherboards but can't muster up the energy but the thought is really tempting.

Can anyone offer some reassurance that maybe baby is on its way soon? Is the achy back & "low" feeling of baby a sign of things moving forward? Patience has never been one of my strong points. I've been off work for 6 weeks now & getting cabin fever.