Prodromal labor

[an_aurora]

Anyone else?

This is my third baby and with both girls I had nary a twinge until I was suddenly in active labor. Last night I had regular, close, painful contractions for about 2 hours and then they stopped. Tonight again I'm contracting again. I'm not ready for baby, but I really hope this doesn't continue for the next 5 weeks!

[Quindin]

: It is because is is your third.
Hang in there.
It may be a while, or it may be soon, but all of this work your body is doing is wonderful stuff in preparing itself.
Try to rest and din't get discouraged.

The best is not to think "I can't take 2-3 more weeks of it" but instead trying to focus on the NOW, and think of these pains as your body working as it should.
I have not had a little meltdown yet, but I know it is coming - after a few days of prodromal labor I begin losing
So let's vent and give each other moral support here - nobody really gets how much this sucks outside "my MDC world"

[greenthumb3]

Hey, I know how you feel!

My third pregnancy was like this, too. First time, went into labor, second, water broke, third time, I had contractions off and on for two days before they worked into actual active labor.

What I told myself to feel better (it made me mad that my mw said they were "not real" contrx....they felt real enough!!! Those suckers weren't light!) was that they were contrx and they were getting my body ready for the actual event. One night, they were every 15 minutes all night long, with little sleep and felt intense! Then, in the a.m., nothing. It did get frustrating, but I did my best to relax with it and luckily it didn't last long. That day I had my son. It was mentally weird for me and fo some reason very hard, but I keep it in my mind that the same thing might happen for my 4th child's birth. We'll see how it goes

The hard part was trying to find support; most of the mothers I knew IRL, my sons' friends' mothers, etc didn't even know what going into labor with normal cntrx felt like as they had all been induced--that was weird to me, having no one else know what this kind of labor was like after several children! It is sad, such a lost part of wisdom for women to pass to eachother. Glad for MDC and homebirthing mamas and the wisdom they can pass, though.

[gossamerwindweb]

I heard that prodromal labor can happen because baby isn't optimally positioned. A visit to spinningbabies might be a good idea. Other than that (((hugs))) Hope baby comes soon!

[Avani]

My prodromal labor happens mostly at night that i notice. Personally it goes on for a long time for me and i just enjoy it since it is nothing compared to the real thing and i use it as a tool for preparing for the real thing.

[greenthumb3]

Quindin, just checking in: how are the contractions? Any changes?

p.s. I just read through the spinningbabies website. Holy Toledo! Why have I not seen this earlier? I am so taking some of that advice myself, esp. the pregnancy belt, hip circles, and more "cat" poses.

[Quindin]

Originally Posted by greenthumb3

Quindin, just checking in: how are the contractions? Any changes?
s.

Nope, still here
I have contractions daily.
Ok, they are more painful than they used to be and coming with a better pattern, but disappear after 1-2 hours.
All part of the "joy" of having been pregnant so many times before.

[greenthumb3]

Originally Posted by Quindin

Nope, still here
I have contractions daily.
Ok, they are more painful than they used to be and coming with a better pattern, but disappear after 1-2 hours.
All part of the "joy" of having been pregnant so many times before.

Oops! Looked at the wrong name on the thread.
I meant to ask the OP, but, ok, good to know you're hanging in

(thanks for letting me ddc crash for a minute)

[Quindin]

[an_aurora]

Lol, it's all good :. I'm still here too!

[greenthumb3]

So, I'm curious, how are those contractions? Have they stopped, the prodromal ones, or are they continuing? Found anything helpful for them?
(I really am taking notes, )

[an_aurora]

I am still getting them pretty much every night (tonight they are pretty wicked). They are probably about a minute long, and get to be about 5 minutes or so apart, but never get stronger or closer together.

[GoodNamesGone]

I'm confused... Maybe I don't actually know what Prodromal Labor is?

You guys have said several times this is because it's a 3rd baby (I'm sure that goes for 4th, 5th, so on). I'm having painful contractions here, mild ones there, 12 hours of mild short ones Sunday night... and this is my first. I thought this was Prodromal, or "false" labor.

So... am I wrong on what Prodromal is, or is my uterus just in the mood to be REALLY ready?

[Quindin]

Originally Posted by GoodNamesGone

I'm confused... Maybe I don't actually know what Prodromal Labor is?

You guys have said several times this is because it's a 3rd baby (I'm sure that goes for 4th, 5th, so on). I'm having painful contractions here, mild ones there, 12 hours of mild short ones Sunday night... and this is my first. I thought this was Prodromal, or "false" labor.

So... am I wrong on what Prodromal is, or is my uterus just in the mood to be REALLY ready?

Your uterus is working as it should, and doing more and more practice contractions. Some will hurt, some won't.

The way I see prodromal labor is, when you have contractions that are strong enough and regular enough that you are sure this is IT! You are basically sitting by phone, ready to call the hospital/midwife because you feel really certain this is real labour.

With my first I had NO IDEA what labor was supposed to feel like, so on the day before DD was born and I began having painful contractions I could time and which were coming in a pattern, I was sure this was it. I went in the hospital and stayed there for 5 hours, just to be sent home again... The next, real labor started the very same way, but this time it did not all fizzle out after a few hours.

Now I only call the midwife if I have not been able to speak through the contractions for a couple of hours. With my last labor having been only 4 hours long, I risk waiting too long though...

[Amberoxy]

I had this happen to me Friday night after DTD. I went to bed and felt contractions. I was so excited!!! But, I wasn't entirely convinced it was labor - mostly because I just wanted it to be labor so bad! After a few of the contractions though - I was pretty convinced. There was definite discomfort and my back was aching super bad. I got up and walked around my kitchen 'cause I knew BH contractions usually stop with a change of position. I also drank some water since I knew BH contractions could be caused by dehydration. The contractions kept coming and I was getting more and more excited. I was letting DH sleep because he had worked hard during the day on our house and I wanted him to have as much rest as possible. I decided to take a bath to try to ease the discomfort on my back. The contractions lessened in intensity a bit but didn't go away fully. This really convinced me it was labor! I decided then to go back to bed and try to rest as much as possible before they got bad. I fell asleep and when I woke up, they were gone . I was so upset! I felt betrayed by my body - like it had played a practical joke on me. But, then I realized that I had had some really good practice with my breathing and keeping loose and visualizing myself opening up for the birth. It actually gave me a lot of confidence that I would be better able to handle contractions this time than I did last time. I haven't had another session like I did Friday night but I do have some contractions during each day throught the day. Some are painless and some hurt a little. A lot of time, when I go from sitting to standing, I get a contraction. I try to practice through each one and think about all the work I won't have to do when I really go into labor. My last labor was really long so, every little bit helps!