Cramps, BH, pre-labor, how do you tell the difference?

[Nammymom]

I feel like I should know this... but how do you know whether you have cramps, Braxton Hicks, pre-labor contrax or anything else? Lately, I've occasionally been having sensations, neither painful nor painless. Not regular either. They do seem to appear later in the day (eve), but not every day.

Other than that I'll join the chorus of "I'll be the last one here", no mucus, no contrax, no nothing.... The frustration can be relieved with copious amounts of organic dark chocolate...

[mightymoo]

Do you mean how do you tell the difference? It really doesn't matter - we just like to have labels for things, y'know? I mean 'Braxton-Hicks Contraction' is just a label to give moms so they can call it something. And there isn't a lot of difference between braxton-hicks and prelabor - its more a psychological thing I think - Moms tend to call it prelabor if its more painful and just before their due date, if they take on a regular pattern for a while, etc.

The contractions I've been getting are not painful either, they generally feel like someone is sitting on my chest - hard to breath, heart pounding (my midwife attributes this to the fact that when the uterus is contracted, its pushing a lot of blood out of itself and back into my system) and happen irregularly, often when I sit up or walk around.

I'm with you on the chocolate!

[Eaglevoice]

mightymoo- I'm glad to hear that you feel like it's hard to breathe and feel your heart pounding more during contractions as well. I wasn't sure what that was all about. I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in that one.