Soooo after talking to a few of my friends who have children it seems that hardly anyone has their water break or notices their 'show'.
So just wanting to get a bit of an idea of what most peoples first signs were? At the time when did you realise you were in labor? In restrospect Im sure there is alot of things, but I want to know what you noticed at the time.
I mean Im sure Ive probably had BH by now, but as I dont know what Im feeling or looking for I cant honestly say lol.
I was having prelabour pains for two weeks until the first real contraction happened!! It was completely different. 10 hours later ds3 was born
A day or two after my EDD I found bright red blood in my undies. Freaked out & rang my midwife who explained that can happen when you have a show. She said things were starting but didn't indicate it would be that day. That was about 11am. Had nothing else all day & got quite grumpy that things seemed to have stopped. Then sitting at the table eating dinner at 7pm the same day...BAM regular contractions!
Should add that I never had any of the classic pre labour signs. He never engaged so I never had that feeling of pressure etc that I've heard other women talk about.
I woke up with a weird feeling and it was something I couldn't sleep through (was around 7am) but I didn't immediately think it was contractions. After about an hour or so of them coming and going, with me trying to get comfortable and sleep with no luck, I decided maybe I should get up and time them. When I realised they were quite regular I started to think maybe this was it. Went to the hospital around midday where they gave me the big 'yep, you're in labour' and had DD just after 6pm. My waters didn't break until right before she was born. This was at 38w exactly.
I was very emotional (quite teary) and busy the day before but that's more of a hindsight warning. The following morning I was woken to regular period type pains around 6am (roughly 10 minutes apart) then my waters broke about 7.15am and contractions were every 3 minutes in no time.
I was one of the ones whose water broke and flooded the house ;)
i had several signs but i didnt add them up lol
mon night had monitoring done and heartbeat was much much lower and she was very sleepy
11pm mon felt the need to clean slight pain
woke at 6am tues with toilet pains and had to keep going toilet
2pm had my show
by 4:30pm i finally though hmmm maybe i am in labour lol
she was born 8:35pm
i put my not realising down to i had really bad BH and toilet pains for weeks before she was born and while i thought it was a little different i didnt wanna get my hopes up lol
Ive only had one labour, I remember waking at midnight on the sasturday/sunday & having some back pain, i couldnt sleep, it was an ache that came & went, at about 8am i had diorreah and part of the mucus plug at this stage I still hadnt told mum i didnt want her to think i was being silly ( I was barely 18 & living at home) Mum went out and i rang my best friend who said quite bluntly your in labour you idiot lol so she rang mum, I was still having diorreah & loosing the plug, pains got closer & i went to hosi at 8pm sunday night, doctors tried to send me home i said i wasnt leaving without a baby, anyway lots and lots of pain later they broke my waters at 2pm Monday arvo and along came MJ at 4:10pm...
I had pain the day before across the top of my belly. I thought bub had moved into a weird position and was just waiting it out until she moved again. I was told two days before that that my cervix wasn't yet in the correct position and that this baby wasn't arriving anytime soon. I had a long shower and went to bed, only to wake up at around 2 with stronger pain but again across the top of my belly. We rang the hospital, they confirmed that it didn't sound like labour, but to go in and be checked out. On the drive to the hospital, we realised that the pains were coming and going, and were 4-5 minutes apart. We got to the hospital and they took one look at me staggering in and said, yep, you're in labour.
Just from pre-labour pains. I didn't have a bloody show nor did my waters break on their own
I went to bed one night and about half an hour later had my first contraction. Had contractions all night and next day, then started losing plug. Started having show, went to the birth centre about midnight (24 hours after first contraction). My waters didn't break until right before I started pushing.
I was induced with both, so it night not really count...
With Ianto I realised it was finally kicking in when I kept waking up to pains every five minutes. It was more that they were regular than they were painful that made it click that I was actually in labour.
With Amelia I was awake, so I noticed it much earlier and easier - small pains that annoyed me and made me restless. I couldn't stay sitting so I got up and paced through them for an hour or two.
Sent from my iPhone so forgive the speelung misstacks ;)
With my first DS I had the most horrible pack pain ever, so bad I almost couldn't walk (everyone thought I had pain associated with a large fibroid growing in my uterus only to realise later I was actually in early labour). It was followed by period like cramping and bleeding shortly before DS was born (total labour was almost 3 days). Hard to say how the labour would have gone had I carried the bub to full term though. With my second DS I had a scheduled c/s but had BH from about 24 weeks. Around 35 weeks I had this enormous pressure 'down there'. By 38 weeks I thought I was going to pop! lol.
I had no bh or anything. My water broke thats how I knew lol
With DD I had gone to bed (41wks gest) and contractions started immediately 5mins apart. Sharp period pain cramping is how I explain it for me anyway. My waters didn't break until few hrs later in established labour.
For this baby... Not sure yet but I will know very soon :)
I'd been in prelabour for weeks, I was 3cms for 2 weeks before DS was born! So I kept posting on here trying to find out how to tell the difference between prelabour and labour. Everyone told me I'd know it when it happened and I was getting more and more frustrated. Then I woke up at about 7am one morning and KNEW. The contractions were different, and stronger, and it took my whole body to be involved ITMS? I'd love to say DS was born 4 hours later, but it was 21hrs later :lol:
Oh, and I had AROM at some stage during that 21 hours... :)
My waters broke both times.
my first signs were waking up earlier than usual with a massive amount of energy and excitement (couldnt wipe the smile off my face kinda excitement). about half hour later i had my first tightening (but as i had had prelabour and it felt the same before) i didnt give it much credit. i guess i kinda knew something was up that morning as the tightenings were there (irregular in timing and length and intensity) so i called midwife that i *might* have a baby in the next day or so. BUT tbh, i didnt realise it was really labour until my waters broke that afternoon.
i didnt have a show until i was well in to my labour with both. and my waters didnt break at the begining, with dd1 they were broken by the mw and with dd2 broke when i began pushing.
i knew things we starting when i was woken at 1am, i took a codein and went back to bed and woke again at 4am knowing i was definatly in labour, i had to rock andbreath through them.
the contractions were regular and just felt ... different ... to bh. good luck
show and contractions
With DS1, I was induced so nothing but with DS2 I woke to contractions at 2am which were irregular but different to bh at around lunch time I started losing my plug. My waters didn't break until 43mins before I had him
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The back pain for both of them, that really bad period pain, then I had a show, and the contractions started.... Mostly in my back.
Love MN ;-)
Having had several babies where i experienced irritable uterus, i never realised i was in labour with any of them until a mw told me LOL.
#2, i was in hospital for high BP, they put me on the ctg, came back in and said you realise you are in labour dont you? im like no?? they said, yes you are having regular contractions. It was about an hour before i actually started feeling these contractions. DS was born the next morning.
#3, i woke at 4am on a friday morning with my first contraction. The fact that it woke me up should have told me something but no, i went shopping that day (driving myself and all), commenting to family members i was having some really strong "braxton hicks" lol, i then went visiting on the saturday (having had 15 min contractions all day friday, all night and still going..............and i still hadnt clicked), came home, had a power nap, contractions moved to 5 mins apart suddenly........still had no idea i was in labour but thought i should go get checked out so we drove DS to the IL's, pulled up in thier driveway and they moved to 2 mins, it was then that i wondered if i might be in labour, she was born about 8 hrs later.
#4, i was having regular 5 min contractions and decided to ignore them cos i was thinking it was IU and DH wasnt home. Lucky my friends came and took me to get checked out because DD was in distress (i was only 35wks) and they had to bring her on faster, i was 3cm when they broke my waters, and thats all i needed, didnt need the cyntocin. So my theory is i was in labour myself anyway.
#7, i woke up that morning with strange cramps down low across my back and front in like that cervix band area. Felt like i had to keep going to the toilet but i couldnt. I was being induced that morning anyway, so we went in, me still having these strange cramps and i was 3cm stretching to 6cm, so my theory is i was in labour myself too. They only had to break my waters and the contractions started straight away, no cyntocin needed again.
So yep, every time, i was oblivious to the fact i was actually in labour with any of them really till after the event and hindsight came into play.