False Labour, stop-start contractions, Braxtons hicks... what should I be doing?

[Luna7993]

I'm 38 weeks and have had nearly a week of irregular contractions, false starts, etc. I didn't have this with my first 2 births, and am just wondering what on earth I should be doing. I know I'm not overdue yet, so should I just be resting, sleeping, putting feet up, until the real thing actually gets going... or should i be walking, climbing stairs, bouncing on a ball, doing anything to try and get these contractions to turn into something substantial??

[AveEldon]

I would recommend resting

[NickyEds]

Rest, it could be a while yet. With my dd I had weeks of this stop starting with strong bh and she was born at 40+4. It's going to sound silly but I was very fretful about our childcare arrangements for ds and I finally went into labour the night my sister finished work and was totally available to watch him. I have heard of this before-women "waiting" until their other dc are sorted! Having all of the bh was a total pita but in the end I had an easy birth and the mw said that a lot of the work had been done.