When did you realise you were in labor? what were the first signs?

[lissy]

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.

[zap]

I was having prelabour pains for two weeks until the first real contraction happened!! It was completely different. 10 hours later ds3 was born

[~Hestia~]

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.

[Jellyfish]

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.

[Taurean]

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.

[Lily Dust]

I was one of the ones whose water broke and flooded the house

[MummyOfTerrors]

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

[Cocolove]

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...

[Miss.September]

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.

[RhiChiChi]

Just from pre-labour pains. I didn't have a bloody show nor did my waters break on their own

[Sterla]

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.

[TeniBear]

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

[Miss.B]

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.

[Beautiful Disaster]

I had no bh or anything. My water broke thats how I knew lol

[Shanti]

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

[krystals]

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

Oh, and I had AROM at some stage during that 21 hours...

[Khaleesi]

My waters broke both times.

[Cassius2]

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.