Contractions only at night?

[Hollin]

For the past 4 or 5 nights I've been getting strong, regular contractions. They start out about 20 minutes apart at 5:00 and by 1:00 they're 5 minutes apart and more intense. I keep thinking this must be it, but then everything stops around 3:30! I have contractions during the day too, but they're definitely BH. The ones at night feel more real (not that I really know what real contractions feel like, but these ones start in my low back and spread over the front and reach a peak and everything).

Is it normal for this to just be happening at night? Is there any way to know if I'll go into real labor soon or will this just continue for the next 3-6 weeks?

[zjandosmom]

I think it's very normal. With my last 2 I had contractions only at night for 2-3 weeks before I actually gave birth!!! My dh and I would stay up playing backgammon and the joke was we stopped at 11 because that's when the contractions would. Probably notwhat you wanted to hear. You could be totally different. Who knows! I have found this whole experience to be very humbling and truly each one is different.

[ashcox]

I've been doing the same thing every night. Mine start about 6 and are 10-15 min. apart, gradually they get closer to 6 min. apart. I usually just go ahead and go to bed around 10:30 or 11:00 because I figure if it's the real thing then they'll keep going. They don't. Then it starts again the next day. Just hang in there! We'll have our babies before long. It's frustrating though, isn't it?

[ozzyemm]

I also had contractions only at night; sometimes so regular and intense that I would stay up and work through them. I got used to them, and basically ignored them. My real contractions also started at night, so I ended up ignoring the first hour or two of contractions, until they got intense enough that I couldn't ignore them!

[ehsclt]

Hollin, you've described my pattern exactly. And my mw said the nighttime thing is very normal. She thinks it can be related to the hormones that are present when the male comes home at the end of the day (if one lives in a home where they have a male come home at the end of the day.) That's not it in my case, because DH gets home around 6:30-7 pm and my contractions start almost exactly at 5 pm. They get more and more intense and then I wonder if I'll be able to sleep, I go to bed and they stop. Amazing.

What is really interesting to me is that so many of us are going through this same thing. I find this board SO helpful because so many of these patterns, like the night contractions and the prodromal labor are not things I'd ever read about in the many pg books I've read.

[ozzyemm]

Emily--
We posted at the same time .

Your MW's idea is interesting, but doesn't work in my case. either. I started having contractions on Thanksgiving Night. DH comes home by 4m, and I would have contractions starting at 6m or later. In my case, I think my contractions started because I was tired, because when I tool a nap, the contrax would go away. In real labor, I couldn't sleep in the early stages, mainly because I *knew* this was it!

[cathynmatt]

I've been doing the same thing ~

[Hollin]

Glad I'm not alone in this! We're the night laborers! I got to sleep in this morning and I feel so much better. I was feeling really down yesterday, but I think I was just completely exhausted.

Thanks for preparing me for a long wait, zjandosmom. I'd rather expect to go a few more weeks than be disappointed. I guess I just have to trust that my body wouldn't do something without a reason so this must have a purpose. I was 2 cm at my last appointment so that's 2 cm less that I have to dilate in actual labor!