Impatient Mum-to-be

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.

hey there i think it is very likely that what you are feeling is baby getting ready to poke it we head out in this world.I to am kinda nervous about the whole labour and stuff to as my first one will be 7 next month so as you can amagine this is defantly like being preg for first time memory not what used to be :lol:
If you have any worries i would ring midwife or ob whoever looking after you better to be safe but i think it all getting ready to go. and you will be seeing your we one soon i reakon keep us posted

Being 39 weeks you are almost there anyway but I do understand what you are going through with the prelabour and BH's as I had them with my previous 2 PG's.
All I can say to reassure you is that your body is practicing for the big event and there is a chance that when you do go into labour for real it will be quicker for it.
After a weekend of prelabour at a week overdue I was examined and found to be 3cm dilated! I can't begin to tell you how happy that made me (ie the discomfort wasn't in vein) and then later that evening my labour begun properly and it was 2 hours and bub was in my arms!

:hug: hang in there!

Yes! It sounds like things are going brilliantly for you, matey :) As Sam said, your body is preparing itself for the real thing which will definitely be happening soon.
Do keep yourself occupied (I found when I went o/d that I needed to keep myself busy to distract myself from the fact that SHE WASN'T BL**DY HERE YET :lol: But perhaps cleaning the outside weatherboards is a little too much?!? LOL. Maybe cook some dinners to freeze for when bubs arrives? Or wash/fold some baby clothes and think lovely warm new baby thoughts?
All the best. Stick around on here too - BB is a brilliant time-waster! (And get into reading some positive birth stories too!)

Thanks for the advivce :D Baby Hayley was born on Tuesday 28th October, one day before her due date. Looks like she was definately getting ready to come out when I originally posted my question. Thanks again, all the best :)

Congratulations on the birth of little Hayley!! When I read your first post, I was hesitant to reply because I had exactly the same things happening nearly 2 weeks ago. Everyone was saying 'this is it'. I'm sitting here now on the 'due date' still in one piece. I should know by now to be patient - 3 children already were 6-8 days late. Only one more week.....

Congratulations! :)

Thanks everyone :)

I should probably add that my midwife gave things a small hurry up at 9am that morning with a "stretch & sweep". 5 hours later I was in pre-labour & 2 hours after that labour was established with Hayley being born 12 hours after I saw my midwife. I'm not sure if that alone brought things on, but thought it might be helpful to someone else who is still waiting...