prelabor/early labor?

[mamaley]

Does anyone want to tell me about what they experienced in prelabor and in early labor? I think my body is getting into gear--I'm almost 38 weeks, and last night things suddenly started feeling different--lots of back discomfort, menstrual like cramps, and upper leg aches. I know I'm not in labor yet, but it's exciting that things might be getting started. She dropped almost 2 weeks ago, and this is my second child, but I keep telling myself that this doesn't mean anything.

Anyway, what were your signs? How long did it take before labor started? Disclaimer: I know everyone's experience is different and that this could go on for weeks, but I can't resist...

[3girlsmommy]

mameley- With my second my "warm-up" lasted 2 weeks and 1 day. My first sign was that it felt like I pulled my inner thigh muscles and by that point I was no longer working out. Then a couple of days later I started having surges(hypnobirthing for contractions). Sometimes they would be very regular and a couple of times were 3-5 minutes apart for over an hour(we even went to the hospital once because we thought it was the real deal). Then for about 3 days everything stopped. I didn't have really any thigh pain and no surges. The only thing that I felt was pressure like the baby was going to fall right out! On her due date she woke me up w/ surges at around 5:00 am. THey were about 15 minutes apart and I thought here we go again w/ another day of warm ups. I took my dd to kindermusik class and on the way home the warm-ups changed. My baby was born at 7:58 pm. I had about 8 hours of "real" surges and only 45 minutes of hard labor.
Good Luck and happy birthing!