I'm 39 weeks with my second child and I've been having prodromal labor for about a week. Just weak (simple tightening and loosening- like BH) contractions here and there. Sometimes I feel my cervix pulling with them.
I'm also having a ton of sharp stabbing pains with the baby's movement. It feels like he is pounding on my internal organs. This prevents me from sleeping at night, so I've also gone nearly a week with just a few hours of sleep per night. This is the part that's making me frustrated, grumpy, and very emotional.
So, I had my mw come over for an internal yesterday morning and found out I was 5cm dilated and 70% effaced! So not BH contractions after all! However, I've had nothing longer than a few hours of every 15 minute contractions. After that they always stop. They are not strong at all (completely painless) and most are not very long. So it's been nearly 2 days since the midwife checked and it's likely I've dilated even more.
My question is, what are your experiences with this type of labor? How long did you go before "active" labor actually kicked in? Will I just keep dilating like this with these irregular and weak contractions until suddenly my water breaks or I have one or two intense contractions and the baby comes out? We are actually fine with a UC, so I'm not worried about the actual birth. I'm just needing some experiences to read so that I can stop irrationally feeling like this baby is never coming!
I'm also having a ton of sharp stabbing pains with the baby's movement. It feels like he is pounding on my internal organs. This prevents me from sleeping at night, so I've also gone nearly a week with just a few hours of sleep per night. This is the part that's making me frustrated, grumpy, and very emotional.
So, I had my mw come over for an internal yesterday morning and found out I was 5cm dilated and 70% effaced! So not BH contractions after all! However, I've had nothing longer than a few hours of every 15 minute contractions. After that they always stop. They are not strong at all (completely painless) and most are not very long. So it's been nearly 2 days since the midwife checked and it's likely I've dilated even more.
My question is, what are your experiences with this type of labor? How long did you go before "active" labor actually kicked in? Will I just keep dilating like this with these irregular and weak contractions until suddenly my water breaks or I have one or two intense contractions and the baby comes out? We are actually fine with a UC, so I'm not worried about the actual birth. I'm just needing some experiences to read so that I can stop irrationally feeling like this baby is never coming!
and I've been bouncing on the birth ball, walking, cleaning, going up and down our two flights of stairs, and even tried taking a B&B tincture every half hour for 6 hours yesterday. Nothing regular, nothing strong. 
But you said you were at 5cm for weeks? ugh.
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