Moms of 2 or more - How much warning did you have when it was "time?"

[BlackSheepPDX]

I"m 38 weeks with my second child. I'm getting very uncomfortable, mostly in terms of feeling stretched to capacity, and getting really sore on my right side (baby stays mostly right side due to a mass from an old rowing injury on my left side). My BH haven't gotten particularly interesting, though the baby has definitely dropped. My first labor had about five days of "warmup," from the time I started to have contractions that were of any real interest (a Saturday night) to when I lost my plug/had bloody show at 9am on Wednesday and delivered at 6am the following morning. That last day I had contractions that required my attention through the afternoon, started to get more intense and 15-20 min apart in the early evening and hit 5 min or less apart and full force about 11pm.

I'm planning a homebirth, and have a few contingency plan issues that would make it really good to know within a day or so that things are "changing" for real.

So my question is, with second births or more, did you still find you had some "warmup time" that gave you a sense that you were hitting the home stretch, or did you get completely surprised when labor really started?

My gut feeling is that I'm not "there" yet, and I will hold on for the last couple of weeks, but I'm anxious that I'll be completely wrong and get caught with loose ends unfinished before then.

Any words of wisdom or anecdotal evidence you want to supply me with?

[forumyonly1]

With my third baby I hadn't had any BH contractions that day at all.. i cleaned the entire downstairs of my house thinking "oh i'll do the upstairs tomorrow". i put the kids to bed and was really tired but decided to stay up to watch the 10pm Dexter.. and right at the end (litterally durring the credits) I had a really strong conrtaction.. and they were 3-5 min apart and strong from then until I gave birth the next day around noon.. so....... no warm up for me for that birth! lol

[graceomalley]

Towards the end of my 2nd pregnancy I'd been having lots of niggles and cramps - they were irregular and very mild so I thought whenever they got stronger and more regular it would be my sign that things were warming up. They got stronger and regular one afternoon and I thought to myself that the baby would be born within 24 hours. I was holding him 20 minutes later!

[MyFullHouse]

I was shocked when #3 came, lol.

#1 was induced at 40w, and #2 was induced at 41w. This led me to assume that my babies like to stay put until at least 41w, since neither one had shown any impending labor signs.

I did begin having some contractions with #3 on the night of her due date. It made me wonder for about an hour or so, but the fact that I was able to get right to sleep made me think it was nothing. My water broke the next morning.

I followed up with a #4 who also showed no signs of labor, and was induced at 42 weeks.

In a way, I guess it's a lucky thing that I haven't had many twinges to obsess over. On the other, it makes me worry that I won't be at all prepared this time around. I'm so mentally prepared to go to 42w+, that now I'm worried about being taken by surprise at 38w! You just can't win, lol.

[terra-pip]

my second was 12 days past due and I wasn't having any real prelabor symptoms. I induced with castor oil...and even when they were checking my cervix I was shocked that I was at 7 cms.

with my third I had about two weeks of prelabor symptoms. I was pretty sure that it was soon for a few days before. And then of course the mucuos plug was the real tip off I was in labor. My third was a week early.

I think with my second I was almost too scared to go into labor because it was my first hospital birth and I didn't quite know what to expect...but it all turned out well. With my third I was content and not worried about a thing and ready to see my daughter.

[Evergreen]

With both of my noninduced babies labor started suddenly but I was over 41 weeks so I was not surprised.

[Chavelamomela]

With ds1, we were about a week overdue and used a bit of castor oil, so we
"knew" when the real contractions kicked in.

My 2nd one I wasn't really feeling ready for him to come until after my due-date! DH had been in a terrible accident, subsequently we moved to a new apt because of the accident, and I was in my 9th month during the move. I was really "nesting" in full-gear to get the new place in order, and it really wasn't until the day before my EDD that I finally felt somewhat ready.

The morning I went into labor was 2 days after EDD, and I "knew" the baby was coming today even though I wasn't in labor yet - I hadn't slept that night, i felt "off" and "purge-ey" (iykwim - though nothing actually came out, I just felt the feelings of needing to puke and purge from both ends!). I was feeling "off" and it was 4:30 am after not sleeping, so I got up for the day and chatted online with my SIL overseas (it was mid-day for her), and didn't wake DH for a couple more hours. Around 5:30 am, I was having early contractions, by 9am we called the MW and doula to let them know about the early labor, the doula came around 11:30, and the MW around 2pm and at 3:27pm the baby was born at home.