How did you know you were in labor?

[eastkygal]

I thought for sure yesterday was the day, but things just fizzled out after about 3 hours. So, I thought I'd run a poll to see how you knew for sure you were in labor.

[limette]

my doula told me..lol

seriously after 2 weeks of on and off prodromal labor, i wasn't convinced i was in labor when it was the real thing.

the contractions weren't that different and although i saw some mucous plug, i had seen some the week prior so it wasn't anything special. no bloody show at all and my water broke during transition.

[Jennisee]

I'm not sure how to vote. When I knew I was in labor, my contractions were only 7-9 mintes apart, but they were strong enough that it was difficult to talk and I had to breath through them. I didn't have any bloody discharge or water breakage until transition.

[s_kristina]

I wasn't sure I was in active labor when we went to the hospital to see my midwife. I had been having contractions and bloody show for 24 hours at that point and still wasn't sure things were progressing. I told dh I was going to cry if nothing was changing when we got there. Thankfully I was at 4cm and as the nurse put it had a paper thin cervix.

[~NewMa~]

I'd been losing chunks of mucous plug for the past day and been crampy.
My contractions were also alot different. I'd been one to have tons of braxton hicks and these were totally different and started to get alot stronger as time passed.
I wasn't sure I'd be able to tell when it was the real deal either but, like everyone always tells you, "you'll know"!...........Unless you're one of the lucky ones I guess.

[spookymama]

i was in denial until they were 2 minutes apart, then one. Thats when I realized it was it. Water didny break, no bloody show

[eastkygal]

Thanks for the responses. This prodromal labor has confused me a bit a few times. I've not seen anything bloody yet, so we'll see. I'll be 41 weeks Wednesday. I'm really definite on my dates.

[ErikaG]

I'd been prodromal for about five days, spent last Wednesday doing what had become our routine acupuncture/reflexology appointment in the morning, then an OB appointment in the afternoon where, at 41w2d I let him sweep the membranes, hoping it would start something going, then headed to the chiropractor. My chiropractor was running late, and I was hanging out in her waiting room for quite a while, and I think I felt the bag of waters bulge or move twice. Then we finally get into her office and we chat for a few minutes (she's a friend of mine) and I get up to move to the table. I bend over to stretch for a moment and all of a sudden I look up and say "I'm suddenly very wet." Raced off the bathroom to see what it was, turns out it was water, though later on we found out that it had either been a high leak or a forebag/hindbag situation.

[KariM]

For me it was a combination of water breaking AND consistent contractions.

This was the first time I had SROM before pushing!

All around, this babe's labor/birth was so different (which I intuitively knew it would be).