When having a contraction, you feel...

[Hannahkatiebell]

Not sure I'm actually contracting but maybe...has anyone every felt anything similar to the "let down" feeling during a contraction? I'm having some cramping and feeling this sort if tinglyness, too. Am I just weird?

I'd also love to know what everyone else feels as you gals have contractions in the coming days and weeks.

[AKChix0r]

Mine felt like menstrual cramps that had peaks. I also noticed sharp cervical pain with them that felt like what I feel after a pap smear. They were totally different then the BH contractions I had been having.

[Shonahsmom]

I'm contracting fairly often (although not regularly or with any kind of pattern).

With my Braxton-Hicks, my belly gets tight and a little uncomfortable, but there's no pain. With my contractions I feel it basically in my belly from my ribs all down through my thighs and in my back. It has a rise and a fall and I feel sharp pains in my cervix.

[RosemaryS-F]

Do you mean like when your milk is letting down?

Hi Karli!

[newyorkmommy]

Hm. I think we all feel it differently, but I also think -- when you're really in labor, you KNOW you're in labor. Kwim?

But I guess if I had to describe them I'd say mine felt like unbelievable menstrual cramps (which I normally don't have) plus cervical pinching. everything was front, center and low. And, well, they hurt.

[eljay18]

I feel two different things going on - 3 times or so I have felt a massive muscle in my center get very tight and strong...and about 20 different times (usually 2 or 3 times every other night or so) I get this menstrual cramp feeling that suddenly releases into a tingly feeling- like magic- I don't know how to explain it- and it kinda tingles all over my body.  It feels like electricity.  I wake up (or I'm kinda already awake) and think of myself as a mother fire fly and I'm glowing from my core -- humming with light and energy--with life!!   It is a wonderful feeling.  The tingly feeling always makes me think "am I dreaming this?"  but it has happened at least 10 times now in the past 2 weeks - I'm pretty sure it is real....as odd as it is.  I am at week 38 with my first.  These feelings have come with no patterns really but I think they are happening a little more often...I am sooooooo excited!

[akayerich]

When I went into labor with my first, it felt like bowel pains.  I spent the first hour trying to figure out if I was in labor or just needed to use the bathroom.  I didn't have any "practice" contractions that time at all.  Or if I did, I slept through it.  As labor progressed, they felt different, but I really don't remember exactly what they felt like.

This time, I've been having some contractions that feel like a bad menstrual cramp that radiates around to my back.  And also, I can feel my belly get hard with my hands.

[RosemaryS-F]

Because I had back labor, I felt the bones in my hips and lower back "breaking" in strong surges. It was only mildly relieved when dh would push my hips back together.

[Katico]

I was induced with my first and at the beginning, my natural contractions felt like the really bad cramps you get with diarrhea + the worst menstrual cramps.  

Once they started pitocin though....well...let's just say I'm still traumatized. 

[Hannahkatiebell]

Yes, that milk reflex is was I was talking about...after being induced with my first, I'm not sure what to expect. Every different feeling that comes along, I start to wonder: is this it?