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So....how much time did you have from "I think I might be in labour" to "ow, I am definitely in labour" to "waaahhhhhhh" new baby???

Midnight - first twinge
1am - on the phone to the hospital
2am - arrive at the hospital
9.30am - baby arrives

5am - gave up trying to sleep as had been having twinges most of the night
6am - starting timing contractions and they were every 3 minutes but didn't hurt
11am - starting thinking "ow! this is definitely labour"
12.30 - got to hospital
3pm - epidural (which may or may not have slowed things down)
8.20pm - baby arrives

I kinda knew I was in labour even with the twinges as I'd never had them so much before. The morning before the birth I saw the midwife for a standard checkup and she said I'd go to my due date (2.5 weeks later).

Couldn't feel baby move most of the day so went to A&E to be monitored. (different) midwife said I was having lots of contractions (that I couldn't feel!) and to expect the baby the next day

So when I did start feeling the regular contractions in the night I was mostly prepared.

2am day 1 - first twinge
9am day 1 - regular contractions
5pm day 1 - tens on, phoning hospital
1am day 2 - waters broke
2 am day 2 - arrival at hospital
2pm day 2 - emcs

My waters broke at 10am then I went into labour the next day and had a baby by 4pm.

12.30pm sweep at antenatal clinic, advised 3cm dilated already (no symptoms)

Nothing til later that night, then:

10pm first contraction
12.55am ring hospital, advised could be hours, take 2 paracetamol and a bath
01.05am ring hospital back as contractions stepped up massively
01.15am arrive at hospital examined, 7cm dilated.
05.11am DS born.

woke 5am with needing a wee, had a 'show'

back to sleep

12 noon back ache,

3pm very uncomfortable, vomited lunch

5pm arrived at hosp 10cm !!

7pm baby arrived. ( i was 2 weeks overdue)

My waters broke at 11pm, contractions started half an hour later. Baby arrived at 9:30am.

I was having braxton hicks for weeks so ignored twinges all day.
Waters went at 3am, contractions started at 4, arrived at hospital 5.39 (knew baby was breech), arrived by cs at 7.20.
Baby was 2 weeks early

DC1
first twinge at about 12:30am
rang hospital at 2am
Went in at 6am
DD1 born at 12:53pm

DC2
waters broke 5:30am on 20/12/11
Went to hospital for induction at 7:30am 21/12/11, given pessary at 10:30am and told to wait 6hrs on ante-natal ward. Still no contractions. On ante-natal ward over night and small niggly contractions start.
22/12/11 taken to labour ward at 7:30am and connected to a drip at 9:30am.
Active labour kicks in 11:10am DD2 born 1:45pm on her due date.

The whole thing was about 12 hours start to finish - I went to bed about 11pm and it was once I lay down in bed that I realised that the 'twinges' I'd felt were pretty regular, I then snoozed for an hour or so and woke up to find waters gushing everywhere and hugely painful contractions. DS born 11am ish the next morning.

I woke up in a wet patch at 1am, thought I'd wet myself but it was my waters.

Noticed I was having irregular contractions,waters trickled out with each one, coming every 10-15mins, couldn't get back to sleep as they were quite painful.

Rang Labour ward, advised to ring back once regular and between 5mins

Started getting more intense and frequent, laboured at home until 6am, rang back and adv to go in.

Fully dilated at about 11.30am then dd arrived at 15.42 at 38+6wks, pushing stage was ages!!

5am back pain
7am mild contractions
1.30pm stronger contractions, waters broke, headed into hospital
10.45pm DD1 born

7pm - 1st contraction
8pm - contracting regularly, painful, vomitting
9pm - TENS, breathing, ringing hospital
3am - went to hospital, 3cm
8am - gas & air, pool, 5cm
2pm - pushing
5:30pm - transferred from birthing unit, dd born via ventouse.

I didn't get a build up or warning. 0-60 in an hour.

Good luck, just don't be scared of it

No warning at all for me. Waters broke at midnight followed by strong ctx straightaway, arrived at hospital at 3am, baby born at 3.30am!

Oh my goodness cbeebies!!!

Not much...! Waters went at about 8pm, got to hospital at 9, first contraction...it just went from there really and he was born at 5am.

second, ctx started at 7am, straight away every few minutes and he was born at home at 10.30am. (waters went during pushing bit)

This time I am getting a lot of niggles but nothing is happening yet.

Mild back discomfort on and off throughout the night. Not painful as such, but enough to wake me up now and then.

Mild contractions around 5 mins apart started around 10am. Again, more uncomfortable than painful. Contractions stopped around 2pm, so I washed up bouncing on my heels and erm, helped things start again in a different way.

6pm - contractions stronger and more frequent.

3am - pain severe so off to hospital.

12:30pm - DS born after gas and air and epidural and lots of mooing like a cow

Waters broke Saturday at 33 weeks kept in hospital crampy pains, following Thursday pains started 3.00pm and sh

..and she was born at 4.20pm an hour later!!

Waters went at 3pm
Contractions started 6pm
Went to birthing centre 11.45pm 10cm dilated!
Baby born 12.35am
Baby was 2 weeks and 2 days early

2am - hmmm, what's this?
6am - god, I'm starving (cue 20 slices of toast)
11am - right, this is real
4pm - hmmm, so close but no show or waters
8pm - baby

With DS1 I went to bed at Midnight, very very irritated that I was still pregnant (8 days overdue) woke up at 1.30am with contractions every 5 minutes - painful, but not 'oh god I'm about to give birth' painful. Put up with that until 7am then went into hospital for the gas and air Had him around 6.30pm.

DS2 was induced but DD was exactly the same - went to bed at 12, woke up with contractions at 1.30am, went into hospital slightly earlier (around 6ish) as my waters actually broke (first time ever, they were manually broken with the DSs) except she was born just before 10am.

7:30 am contractions woke me. Strong and hard and 3/10.
8:30 am called hospital.
10am arrived hospital.
Kept in and still long, strong contractions.
0256 emcs.

1am waters broke and tummy discomfort

In between tens machine at home having contractions all day until 3.15pm

10.07pm baby born

9pm - a bit of regular twingey feelings, ate fish and chips and bounced on ball. OH insisted I put the TENS on even though I didn't feel like I needed it.
11pm - went to loo, heavy bleeding so called labour ward. Still irregular twinges, not really painful. TENS on about half way. Went to hospital.
Midnight - On labour ward, being monitored, still no regular contractions but allowed to stay as I was 6cm dilated. TENS up to 75%.
1am - moved to room, go to toilet and feel ready to push! TENS on full with the boost on permanently.
2am - beautiful baby boy in my arms!

Took them longer to stitch me up after than it did to get him out!

17.00 backache, followed by waters breaking, uncomfortable night, 7.30am went to hosp, 10cm dilated, very scared, gas & air, baby born 12miday on due date. 19hrs start to finish.

About 4 hours with DC1. Less than 10 minutes with DC2. Don't know what all the fuss is about

3.30 am waters went allover the bed - light twinges started at the same time and by 6 am were obviously coming regularly.

I also started vomiting and craving ice for two days before...

I won't tell you how much longer it was until babsy was in arms ;)

6:30 am - woke thinking I'd wet myself, had twinges

7:30 am - regular contractions, called mat unit who said to come in

12:25 pm - dd arrived

6 hours from start to finish, and she came a day early!

woke up at 3am with contractions and knew by instinct (not kidding!) it was real labour.
walked around living room until I noticed they got regular and closer together.
woke up DH and left for hospital at 5am
DD1 born at noon.

I did not have any warning signs prior to this. Actually I was scheduled a visit the next day but baby decided she was ready to come out rather than have a visit.

I think i'm bucking the trend -

Day 1 3am-7am: D&V and contractions 15 mins apart
Day 1 morning onwards: contractions slow down
Days 2, 3, 4: occasional irregular contractions
Day 5: contractions closer together
Day 6 11am: finally contractions 3 in ten mins for an hour, go to midwife-led unit
Day 6 4pm: exhausted owing to lack of sleep since day 1, given pethidine (amazing stuff!)
Day 6 6pm: still only 4-5cm dilated, so midwife breaks my waters
Day 6 8pm?: get in water pool, feel urge to push almost straight away
Day 6 11.45pm: baby born!

Still haven't caught up on sleep properly... She's two months old.

11am - waters broke, slight discomfort
4.10pm - baby.

Glad I live close to hospital.

Thought I was having Braxton hicks in the day time
7pm they got painful
9pm rang hospital,they said not to come in til contractions were 5 mins apart, I thought pee off im in pain I'm coming in anyway
11pm - after two pushes .. Baby was out

5am waters broke in bed
6am went to hosp- 2 cm
9 am contractions started
By 12pm vomiting with contractions
3pm went to hospital "not in active labour" (argh!), 3 cm
5pm had some pethidine
9pm, examined' 10 cm ("baby could be here any minute!")
11pm after pushing for 2 hours (hideous) - baby born

I was told this was a fairly "standard" labour. Everyone different though!

Woke up Friday with contractions 10 mins apart, made it to every 3 mins on Sunday, went to hospital only 3 cm dilated so sent home. Toby eventually came at 7.18 on WEDNESDAY morning!

Threewheels sounds like mine!! Glad I'm not the only one who took forever!!

4.30am twinges
11am waters broke (while walking the dog!)
all afternoon - contractions but not too painful and didn't dilate
8.30pm - hospital
10pm - induction
1.30am - DD born

Took a while to get going, but once I did, it was very quick!

4am some sort of weird elastic band going snap feeling - waters trickled.
9am told at hospital to stay in as DD1 was going to be born before 37 weeks but not to hold my breath I would probably need inducing the next day as contractions weak.
9pm couldn't knit any longer
1.15am told by midwife I was 'doing well' but still only beginning. Insisted on being checked because of funny downwards pushing contractions...
1.30am baby!

6:30pm Waters broke while I was at my husband's leaving work party.
8:00pm Contractions started
8:30pm Contractions a few minutes apart, called hospital & they told us to come in
9:00pm Arrived at birth centre, was examined & was 4cm & baby was back to back
Midnight Fully dilated
1:30am Transferred to labour ward as baby's heart rate was dropping & had been pushing without much progress
Pushing pushing and more pushing,,,.
2:55am Episiotomy done
3:00am Daughter born!

I had no clues whatsoever in the days leading up to it or even on the day itself. First clue was my waters going...pretty big clue!

Similar time line to WeeJo, but started at 11.30pm and ended at 6.30am the next day (so 7 hours later) with emcs for undiagnosed footling breech.

No warning prior to waters breaking at 12:30pm, got checked out at hospital and found I was already a couple of cms dilated. Contractions started at 4:30pm, went back to hospital at 7:30 and was just under 10cms, was examined an hour later and was fully dilated, left for an hour to see if the baby would make own way out, she didn't so 40 mins of pushing.

No warning to waters breaking but didn't feel like anything was happening till I had contractions and from them starting I was holding DD about 5 and a half hours later.

I was 11days over and went in for hspital check up re induction

11am baby fine but head still high and not engaged

1130am sweep

8pm nothing, phoned mum and cried cos I would have to be induced a few days later

9pm mild contractions

11pm water broke - advised to go back to hospital for check up "but don't get upset when we send you home again

1130 admitted to hospital, 5cm dilated

4am dd born!!!

DD1 - was induced at 39 weeks as had been bleeding for a while and consultant thought it was a good idea otherwise I would be coming back every day.
Waters broken and drip inserted at 10am and she was born at 2pm and it was Friday 13th.

Worried then that I wouldn't know what real labour was like with DD2 as first labour had been very controlled and in hospital. Woke at 4.10am with my waters breaking, woke husband who had to have a cup of coffee whilst I phoned hospital. They asked if I was having contractions and at that point I wasn't so they told me to come in when they were 3 mins apart. DH went to loo when my first contraction came so I stood outside toilet door whilst he timed them. 3 mins exactly so we went. Thank god it was morning not afternoon as we would never had made it, even so he stopped at some traffic lights with me screaming at him to jump them. I arrived at the hospital at 4.27am and DD2 was born at 4.44am.... Hardly had time to get undressed and DH was still getting the bags from the car! Told MW that I had a tens machine and she told me to forget it as I had to push now. All this again at 39 weeks.

My doctor told me if I was to have another one she would put me in hospital at 39 weeks as I probably wouldn't make it.....

Weds 9pm - induced
Thurs 6am - 1 cm dilated with contractions all previous night
Thurs 8 am contractions stopped
Thurs 11 am more induction
nothing happened
Thurs 6 pm threatened to leave hospital, doc examined me and broke my waters
Thurs 9 pm transferred to labour room
Fri 11.20 am DD born.