Did you go into labor with no signs shortly before?

[Ambivalent Dreams]

I am 39 +1. I have a had a few contractions here and there, but nothing very painful at all. My cervix is still long, closed and posterior. I am reading about so many people with prodromal labor and it is making me feel like I am never going to go into labor until I start having some of those prodromal-type symptoms. Anyone go into labor without anything leading up to it? What was it like? Did you just suddenly start having contractions? Did your water break? How long was your labor?

[forumyonly1]

with my third baby i had been having regular BH contractions through out my pregnancy.. but for about 2-3 days before i went in to labor i didnt really have any.. maybe one here or there.. nothing like prodromal labor at all.. i felt great the whole day and cleaned like crazy so i was super tired by the time i got the kids to bed.. got in bed to watch dexter.. seriously debated skipping it because i was so tired.. decided to stay up and watch and then just as i was getting comfy and the credits started rolling.. BAM first contraction.. lol by the second one i knew it was the real deal.. they were that different from the BH contractions i'd been having. it was pretty much out of no where.. so yeah.. it can happen ANY time! lol

that labor was 13 hours long.. but he had both hands on top of his head and i refused to get out of the tub so i'm sure that didnt help speed anything up..

[MsBlack]

Is this your first baby? Many women with their first do not have any or much sign of impending labor, until real labor actually starts. And while it is more common for women to have prodromal labor with subsequent babies, it's not a rule by any means! Just heard from a mama who had her 3rd baby just after due date, 3hr labor--and NO prodromal labor to speak of. The condition of your cervix right now is meaningless, by the way. Some women's cervix starts to soften, thin, open prior to birthing day--some women's cervix just doesn't. It's all normal. Maybe you could stop having (or doing yourself) cervical exams--they have no predictive value...well, except in a case like yours: when there is no noticeable cervical change close to due date, internal exams are a strong predictor of maternal angst about that fact! But also these exams, for women like you, can predict a doc who starts to get antsy about whether or not you'll 'ever go into labor on your own'--bringing the notion of induction into play with no real cause.

[MyFullHouse]

Most of my births have been induced, but I didn't have any real "signs" before hand. They were 40, 41 and 42 weeks.

I did start having Braxton Hicks-like contractions with #3 about 12 hours before my water broke. That's the most "notice" I've ever been given.

I thought I was in prodromal labor with #4 at about 40 weeks, but that turned out to just be really bad gas. He waited 2 more weeks.

[paxye]

I have had prodromal labour with 3 of my pregnancies... starting at about 39 weeks... two of those went to 42 weeks, the last went to 41...

My second labour however started with my water breaking at 38 weeks. I was so surprised and really not ready. There was no sign before and because my first had gone to 42 weeks I was certain I had another 4 weeks ahead...

[Ambivalent Dreams]

This is my second baby. With my first baby, I was laying in bed having menstral type cramps (painful, but not terrible) and BAM, my water broke.

ETA: With that pregnancy, I had menstral type cramps off and on for weeks before my water broke. This time, I've hardly had any pain at all. Though, I have had painless BH contractions where my belly hardens, but even that has mostly stopped over the past couple weeks or so.

[Galatea]

With #3, I had no prodromal or warning. My water started leaking a bit at 11 pm and I was in labor 4 hours later.

[St. Margaret]

I was mayyyybe 1 inch at some near to last appt, and I had NO early signs, just woke up in the night to pee, saw the beginnings of plug loss, and felt so crampy I couldn't get comfy or sleep easily. I had easy labor during the day, more intense in the afternoon (but not bad) and had DD before 8pm. All told, maybe 18 hours from start to finish. Oh, and it was maybe 1-2 days after my EDD!

[lmbjer]

With DD I had zero warning other than I was one day "late." I woke up in the am with light AF style cramps, took a bath to relax, within 1 hour they were five minutes apart and 1 minute long. In all my labor was 3 hours.

With DS I had the traditional showing a few days before and then the AF style cramps came either 1 or 2 days later the morning that he was born.

No BH with either baby, no water breaking in early labor, nothing. So needless to say I take AF style cramps very seriously!

[MegBoz]

NO SIGNS at all! Was 41W4D & decided to get my membranes swept. (First VE I'd had.)

I had not had ONE BH ctrx! I was starting to worry my uterus didn't work!

Turns out, I was 3cm, went to 4 as she went around to do the stripping. She didn't give me a % effaced #, just said, "It's a perfect cervix. I think this will do the trick, I don't think you even have to worry about coming back to get membranes stripped again." (I had asked.)

Sure enough, ctrx started 2 hours later, 1st stage was over less than 5 hours after that! After resisting the urge to push for 30 min to make it to the hospital ( 1st baby, I never imagined 1st stage would go that quick!) Took 45 min to push out DS after we arrived. Awesome, great experience.

[tanyalynn]

I didn't have prodromal labor or really any signs anything was going on til: with #1 my waters broke, and #2 contractions started and didn't stop (paused a bit but didn't stop) til I had a baby in my arms. I'd had BH for months with #1 but they didn't increase in frequency or intensity before my water broke.

With #1, my cervix was closed, maybe barely effaced, baby was still pretty high according to my midwife at the beginning of labor (after water broke, before contractions). For #2 we didn't check til I'd been having contractions a while but based on that check, it's likely I didn't have any significant effacement or dilation before contractions started.

Labor #1 was very average for a 1st child, I think 11 hrs-ish, #2 was long due to poor positioning which wasn't at all surprising given the hip pain I'd had which had significantly limited my mobility late in that pregnancy (so it didn't come out of the blue, is what I'm going for).

[Wendy HS]

In my first labor my water broke at 3am in morning at 38 weeks, very light contractions followed for a few hours and when at the hospital they started threatening a C-section if I didn't get labor going. So I walked very fast up and down the halls and did nipple stimulation, that definetly got them going!!!! Had DS 27 hours after water broke. 2nd labor water broke again at 3am and at 37 weeks, and labor started the same, light contractions, but they increased quicker and harder without doing anything. DD was born after about 14 hours. Now pregnant with 3rd and I am almost to 38 weeks. I've had one night of I guess BH contractions where they were uncomfortable enough I couldn't sleep, but I knew they weren't doing anything much. So I kept laying in bed wishing they would go away so I could sleep. Every few days I've had some cramping, but it goes away without much prompting. I've been spoiled with my water breaking and having them both earlier than my due date, and no contractions until then. This time my due date was moved up an entire month from Oct 22nd to Sept 22nd due to ultrasound size and fundal measurements. I am measuring the same as my other two pregnancies so they are proubalby right, but it drives me nuts to think I could go until Oct 22nd!!!! If you are expecting it, it is easier to deal with, but having a month to wonder, when is it going to be........is torture. ha ha

[Peony]

I have woken up with my 3 children in labor one morning, no signs before. I don't do VEs so no idea what was going on before hand and I have BH throughout the entire pg.

[Just1More]

My last one, other than being 41 weeks exactly, had no signs before. I had some bh, but I always have bh, so it didn't hit my radar at all. When I woke up with a digestive upset, and kept feeling bh, I was curious. I checked and was only MAYBE 75% effaced, and zero dilated. She was born 5.5 hours later. And I still didn't think I was in labor for the first 3 of that!

[Banana731]

Both. I didn't do vag exams in pregnancy. But I didn't have anything until my first crampy ctx, mucus plug out, and then it was a full day of annoying early labor before and then my body got to buisness. dd1 ended in a c/s after only a few hours of active labor, but dd2 was 18 hrs of active labor until she was born. My water broke as she came out.

But it's true, all labors are different

[caedmyn]

I didn't have any VEs, but I had no signs of impending labor with my 2nd (did with my first though).

[treeoflife3]

the night before, I wasn't expecting labor for a while longer... I was expecting to go much further past my EDD than I did haha.

However, I woke up having contractions. In fact, I woke up once, thought I was having some constipation issues, tried to poop, failed, it passed and I went back to sleep. Woke up again and realized after considering trying the toilet again that nope... I'm just in labor now!

I tried to sleep more after that but I was too excited. I ate some jello that my mommy made me for whenver I DID go into labor (she was hoping it would happen ASAP and got a bit too excited preparing) instead

[gravida]

The day I had ds I had no cramps, BH, nothing. We had done induction acupuncture and tons of walking that day too. I had nothing at all until about 10 minutes after DH got home when I had a stop you in your tracks contraction. 7 minutes later another one that had e on my knees. 6 hours later he was born.

[L J]

Twice I have gone into labor with no signs at all.

DS1, 41w6d, lost my mucous plug, had first contraction about 5 minutes later, he was in arms less than 6 hours from losing my plug.

DS2, 35w4d, had what I thought were BH contractions start at 11pm, they weren't regular, figured out around 1am it was the real thing, he was born at 2:30am.

[Mama Lo]

I would say that with my dd I didn't have any warning signs. After work one day, my husband and I had sex, then when to the gym and walked 2 miles. I was having mild contractions(thought they were bh), but I chalked it up to the evenings activities. They continued through the evening, finally annoying enough that I went to bed, they were light enough I was able to sleep thru them for about 2 hours. So at 12am is finally when I had to get back out of bed and start dealing with 'labor. DD was born at 9am. Before having sex and walking I wasn't having contractions, I was never checked or checked myself so I have no idea if I was dialated or effaced. I still don't know when I lost my plug .
So, no signs until contractions, and my water didn't break until broken. After I sat at 9cm for 4 hrs at the hospital, Once they broke my water baby was born 45 minutes later