Pre-Labor is not fun!

[KaliShanti]

I was awake with "breathe thru them" contractions 3-5 minutes apart last night from 1am-4am, then I slept until 7, then they woke me up again and lasted until about 10, then they faded out. So I'm tired!!

But I hope all that pre-labor did something good! I am really kinda hoping Zion will be born tomorrow...

For those of you that have experienced this, how many days/hours was it until you went into "real" labor? With my first I woke up, had an hour of early labor, then went straight until active labor, so this is different for me!

[ShwarmaQueen]

With DS, prodromal labor started Wednesday night, and 'active' labor began Friday morning around 10 am.

I'll be looking for updates because I bet it won't be long!

[greenthumb3]

I include here how the basic pattern for each of my labors with my three children. I hope something here is helpful to you. I know how it helped me to hear others' experiences when I was experiencing my labor with my third child, because it was so different from my previous experiences.


Baby #1: 10 days after the due date, I woke up in the very early morning to go to the bathroom and passed my mucus plug, just tinged with pink. Contractions were light and mild, but continued and then grew longer and stronger until they were heavy at 8 or 9 a.m., and our son was born at noon.

Baby #2: 1 week before the due date, I had regular, just pesky regular contractions during the day for one day, which I kind of ignored. I went shopping and at the store after an hour, I felt them increase in intensity and I felt like I needed to be home. Got home, sat down to nurse my oldest who was a toddler then, and my water BURST! Contractions eased and slowed--then after an hour picked up...after laboring for 4 more hours, our second son was born.

Baby #3: Due date arrived and I celebrated! The night before, I had been woken up every 15 minutes with strong contractions that lasted for about 30-40 seconds each, all night long. During the day, they stopped entirely. Then, that night, same thing happened again.

I remember I started to really feel worn out at that point, physically and emotionally; I was confused--I felt like my body was playing tricks on me. My labors with ds 1 and ds2 were pretty straight forward so I could tell what was going on, but the third time around was just so different with no definite clues imminent.

Anyway, after two nights of all-night contractions which I had to actively focus on relaxing and breathing through, in the morning they slowed, but after having help with the two other kids and going to my room, alone, the contrx picked up and our third son was born in the afternoon.

[minsca]

Well, since I have an irritable uterus it was hard to determine which contractions I could call "early labor" and which ones were just my uterus doing it's best to make me mad.

But with dd1 I started getting early labor contractions on sat at around 10am... dd was born wed morning at 5am. The only time they stopped was when I went to the hospital on mon pm and recieved a shot of morphine. But as soon as the morphine left my system the contractions started up again. By tues at 8pm I was only 3 cm dilated, and exhausted. So they broke my water, and I couldn't handle the pain with how exhausted I was and so I recieved an epidural.

dd2 I started getting regular contractions at 28 weeks whenever I was doing anything but sitting or laying down (I know now that this was irritable uterus). I think it changed from just being an irritable uterus (with no dilating happening) to prodromal labor around 34 weeks. As it would take a lot more time to get the contractions to stop and I often resorted to a hot bath and 1/2 cup of wine before they would stop. Finally at 37 weeks I had enough and walked many many flights of stairs... that put me into active labor. But still then I was in "early labor" from 11am to 11pm before going into active labor at 4 cm.

This time, I had irritable uterus from about 12 weeks on. But I did get it under control after learning at 26 weeks that it was probably caused by a low low grade bladder infection. Prodromal labour started at 35 weeks, at first they were light enough that I could sleep through them, but on the wed before ds was born, they were strong and would keep me up at night, just to stop when my girls woke up. On mon am, they stepped it up another notch and I was positive that I was in early labor and about to go into active labour. Alas I went from 9:30 am to 11:30 pm before finally reaching 4 cm and going into active labour. The good part was that active labour was fast though! I was in transition at 7 cm and 3 pushes later he was out. (I started to push at 9 cm, the dr wasn't there yet, and the nurses told me if I felt the urge to push then I should just push) But I was fully dilated by the next contraction.

It is really hard to deal with long early labours. I think the one thing that scares me about having any more children is having to deal with the emotional and physical toll that being in early labour for days takes on me. Right now I wouldn't have a 4th child just because of that.

I'm thinking of you and sending you

[Beppie]

I just wanted to sympathize with you. I am going through the same thing. 2 nights ago I woke at 3am with contractions that were so painful. I couldn't sleep...I got up and putzed around while the rest of the family slept. I was hoping it was going to lead to the real thing, but instead they petered out. Then yesterday evening strong cramping. We went to bed, and I wake up feeling...nothing! How long is this going to last? One week ago on Wednesday I had Really strong cramping all day long, I thought for sure things would happen soon. Well, still pregnant one week later! This is my third baby. My MW laughs that third pregnancies/babies are always a surprise. I've decided this baby just does not want to come out. I'm just getting tired!

[KaliShanti]

Beppie, yep, that's me too. Yesterday I had another round of (2-5 mins apart, concentrating through them) contractions from 5:30-10:30PM. Then I had my hubby pray over me that they would either go away so I could sleep or turn into active labor. They went away and I have not had ONE contraction today. I really wanted her to come today! I feel very effaced to me (maybe 80%?) and am at least 3cm. Ah well.

[Mommy2Haley]

5 hours on Saturday, 6 on Sunday, NOTHING on Monday, and then came Tuesday: first contraction at 9:40am and baby born at 11:11am.

[KaliShanti]

Originally Posted by Mommy2Haley

5 hours on Saturday, 6 on Sunday, NOTHING on Monday, and then came Tuesday: first contraction at 9:40am and baby born at 11:11am.

That would be so great. I really hope I wake up in the middle of the night tonight and have her in a few hours! My midwife's assistant (who I adore!) is going out of town Thurs-Sat, so i want to have the baby when she can make it!