Period-Like Cramping for two hours last night....need peace of mind!

[amo4piano]

Hi everyone,

I'm 30 weeks. Last night I woke up around 2:30 with pretty uncomfortable period-like cramps. They did not come in waves...they were constant and bad enough to keep me awake. I also felt them in my lower back (just like my usual period cramps). Every time I went to the bathroom I expected to see blood, but there was nothing. I tossed and turned for about an hour and then said ok, forget it, I'm getting up. When I started to walk around, they got better. Every time I tried to lay down again, they came back.

Finally, I sat in the rocker for about 40 minutes and the rocking made them go away. I was able to get to sleep just before 5am. This isn't what I've heard BH to be like....any ideas? Should I be worried and call my someone (my midwife is out of the country on vacation for two weeks!) or just chalk it up to stretching, etc? It's my first pregnancy so I don't really know if this is normal or not. I had lots of fetal movement once the cramps went away and fetal movement is normal this morning,

Any peace of mind would be great! Thanks!

[Mommie22]

First remember that your midwife is there for you if you need her, so don't hesitate to call if you've got questions. Second, I've had period like cramps since day 1 of this pregnancy and I'm just about to give birth. For me, it turned out to be stretching. Sometimes my BH give me cramps too. I would give your MW a call just to be sure, but it all sounds normal to me. 

[GoddessKristie]

It sounds like contractions to me. When I was in early labor I thought my contractions felt just like period cramps. I never had any false labor with my last pregnancy and none so far (39w) with this one. If you're worried enough to ask us I would say call your midwife just to be sure. It sounds totally normal to me, though!

[dogmom327]

Call your midwife at the very least to come up with a plan for if it happens again. I was having similar issues starting at 35 weeks with DD and was able to take an herbal tincture and a glass of wine to keep them under control and keep baby in awhile longer (I had this issue nightly for 3 weeks but that 7-10 days I treated it agressively because she would have been so darn early).

That being said, there are other things that could cause crampy contractions including dehydration, bladder or kidney infection, etc. Just some things to keep in mind and rule out.

[amo4piano]

Just wanted to say thanks and update the ones who replied...I did call the midwife and she now has me on 3 liters of water daily. She thinks it may have been dehydration and just an "irritated uterus." I've had them just once more after that two-hour episode and they lasted only a short time. So....so far, so good (other than the fact that I feel like I'm floating away and I have to pee every 20 minutes!).

I'm now almost 32 weeks so each week that passes gets me closer to meeting baby! I need him/her to stay in there for 5 more weeks and then we are in the clear!

Thanks for your posts.