am i in labour? confused, this is not what I expected

[MonaPomona]

Hi all, bit confused although this is dc2 - I expected 2nd labour to start definitely and get going - but I woke at 5am with contractions which have continued til now, still going but no pattern. Contractions are between 6 and 14 mins apart and lasting around 30 seconds. Have packed ds off to his grandparents - I thought maybe his presence was preventing things getting going but things are not speeding up. Am I over thinking it? I saw the midwife this morning as I'm 40 + 5 and she said a latent labour stage was not common with 2nd births - my latent labour with ds was long, around 24 hours. I'm a bit worried the contractions will stop and what that means - have planned waterbirth at home. Does anyone have any words of reassurance/advice? thank you so much!

[Wrigglebum]

Could it be a false labour? I had contractions for about 15 hours one week before actual labour, but they never settled into a pattern. My sister also had a false labour at 41 weeks, lasted longer than her actual labour!