Anyone had early labor start and stop over and over? UPDATE w/ birth story

[susannah14]

It's driving me crazy. For the third night in the week, I've been kept up all night by painful contractions that feel like early labor. They get closer and closer until they are ~5 mins (or less) apart and then begin to space out and eventually fizzle to nothing. It's so frustrating. With my son, my first painful contraction was IT--it was labor. Now I've had 3 false starts.

It's not ALL bad because these episodes are opening my cervix and effacing me (says my doc, I'm now 3 cm, and w/ my son I was only 1.5 before going into labor). Not a huge deal but it's the only silver lining I can find right now.

I'm so mentally and physically worn out from having to stay up all night and then take care of my son during the day. Hubby stayed home from work today so I could sleep and go to the doctor. She didn't have much to say about these false starts, just that my body is still "Getting ready".

So. FRUSTRATED. I'd really like to know if anyone else has had this. TIA!

 

[mumatmadhouse]

I had that with my 3rd baby. Stop start for a week or more before I actually went into labour properly. Lost count of the times my older 2 were dropped off at nan's for the night! The only thing I will say is that I was 8cm by the time I got to hospital in the end and they didn't believe I was in labour until they checked me. Was only there an hour and a half before he was born. I know it's hard with other children to take care of but try and rest whenever you can. The stop start stuff is going to tire you so you need to try to conserve as much energy as possible. Good luck. Hope it all happens properly for you soon x

 

[LuvallmyH]

I have had that. It's called prodromal labor & it is exhausting! The good news is it is doing some good. It's getting you ready & in my experience my labors were pretty quick because of it. I started between 3 & 5cm before I actually went into labor!
Good luck! I agree, try to rest if you can.

 

[susannah14]

Thank you both so much. I'm glad to hear from other people this is happening to. I know it's illogical, but I just can't imagine myself going into real labor. The next time I get contractions I'm not going to believe it's real probably, even if it is!

I didn't have any regular contractions last night so got a good night's sleep. I'm trying to rest as much as I can. It's just hard because you always think you'll be exhausted AFTER baby comes, and I don't want to be pre-exhausted haha.

 

[Eleanor ace]

I had similar with my 2nd. I wasn't in actual labour but I dilated to 3cm at 36 weeks and from then most nights I'd have contractions which I had to breath through, but things didn't get going for real until I was 41 weeks. I was pleased it didn't happen in the first few weeks but by my due date I was ready to push that baby out out of stubbornness

 

[susannah14]

Hi all, just thought I'd come back and update. I had more false labor overnight June 12-13, again fizzling out by 6 am. At this point I knew it wasn't going to be real anyway. Well I noticed some really watery discharge that I knew wasn't pee (my pee was bright yellow from my prenatals) so I called the hospital and they had me come in to see if it my water was trickling. They looked up there and said water looked intact. But since I was overdue they gave me a sonorgram and my water level was 3.75, so basically NOTHING! They admitted me right away and started me on pitocin. I was already 4 cm when they started. I labored for 5 hours or so, epidural wasn't working right so the anesthesiologist came back 3 times to adjust it. By the third time, I suddenly felt a huge pressure in my vagina and I said to the nurse, "I am feeling pressure" and she said, "Ok we will get the doctor in here to check soon" and at the next contraction I yelled, "NO, I mean this baby is COMING NOW!" So the doc came, said the baby was right there. My husband thought he had time to go to the bathroom but he didn't...I was ready to push and he wasn't there to hold my leg and I was like WHERE THE F*** IS MY HUSBAND!!!!!!! Haha, he will never live that down. Anyways, I only pushed for 20 minutes and my baby girl was here! 9 pounds of chunk! She's 3 months old now and I love her to death!

 

[xxmyheartxx]

Congratulations hun xx

 

[charliekay]

Congratulations xx