Cramping/BH contractions at night and needing to get sleep

[Wendy HS]

I am 35 weeks today and starting yesterday I had a few mild cramping sessions, one lasting off and on for an hour, then night time came and I laid down to sleep. My DS was going crazy inside, twisting turning kicking punching. This is pretty typically of him to start moving as soon as I get quite to sleep, but he's never been quite so active, it was actually quite comical. Then I noticed some pain in my right side down low like the kind of cramp you get when you run. It would come and go, then it come and would radiate around my lower back and finally to my front (like period cramps), then I actually can say I felt what I thought was cervical tightening and then release. They would come and go every 5 minutes or so all night long. They weren't exceptionally painful, but really annoying and I definetly could not sleep through them as much as I tried to, I just couldn't get comfortable. I figure this is just my body getting ready and I am not stressed or worried about it, jut frustrated about not getting any sleep at all. My first DS came after my water broke, contractions started with a little natural prompting and 27 hours time. My DD came again after my water broke, contractions started completely on their own and I had her is about 14 hours. This one has decided to be different I guess. I've never felt braxton hicks so I have no idea if this is what it is, but I have had early labor and it feels the same to me. How do you tell the difference? How on earth do you sleep through them, or if you can't is there anything that helps them go away so you can sleep? I had them from about 10 pm until 6 am in the morning. I finally got in the shower and they went away, is that the key???? !!!!!

[scottishmommy]

I had bh's all the time. I found that drinking a huge amount of water helped a lot. If they were really bad I would have a few sips of red wine. Good luck!

[mercheval]

re:

I've been getting them a lot lately too, and I am 33 weeks. My midwife recommended drinking more water as well. She especially suggested keeping a glass of water by your bed and drinking before bed, when you first wake up, and when you wake up in the middle of the night to go pee.