If you had days of on/off contractions - How quick was the birth?

[mama2moo]

Just wondering. Im 40+2 with dc2 and (like many others on mn) have been having on and off bh/real contractions for a week.

They have been worse this weekend and think I have had a bit of a show. But, they keep stopping.

If you had this how fast was your actual labour? Dd was a 'normal' labour but only 2.5 hours!

Thanks

[Wanderingsheep]

Not me, but I have a friend that had an hour of contractions every evening for a week before the birth of her DS.

Her labour was 3 hours from start to finish!

[BertieBotts]

I had contractions every 5-10 minutes (ie not regular but frequent) strong enough to prevent sleep for 48 hours, then went into hospital and DS was born in 8. (Just under 1 cm every hour - textbook!) He was DC1 though so the first one they say you are likely to have a longer latent stage.

[hobbgoblin]

i had this and labour was very long (longer than 1st birth of 16hrs)

the on/off contractions was due to posterior positioning as was my 4th baby

my 3rd labour was 50 minds so this was a surprise

[Boobz]

Latent labour for me lasted from Wednesday night to Saturday night (contractions every 30 mins right down to every 3 mins, and everything inbetween, but usually every 7 or 8 minutes), and then "real labour" started at 11pm on Saturday, DD born at 6:15am on Sunday.. so 7 hours 15 mins from when I was 4cm dilated.

But gawd did it knacker me out getting there! Coudn't sleep during the whole latent stage..

[BertieBotts]

Boobz yes I had that as well - the lack of sleep is a killer. I remember thinking "It will be great when the baby is born, I will be able to sleep for one, maybe even two hours at a time!" How many new parents think that?? I think in a perverse way it helped with the sleep deprivation at the beginning. (And DS was LOVELY and slept for 8 hours about as soon as he was born, as did I - reverted to 2-3 hours after that though )

[caitlin20]

Ive had all signs of labour, except my waters breaking, i first exeriened a houe of conraction which were 8 mins apart for 30 seconds, i fell asleep. The next night i didnt sleep at all and he contractions got down to every 5 mins, however early hours decided they wernt processing for hours so tried to get some sleep, i managed a few hours, since then ive not sleept at all last night, contractions much stronger and sometims longer, but not closer together, they just dont seem to be procressing :( i rang midwife and she said it sounds like the babys is back to back so created more pain for me.. im shattered and cant see the light at the end of the tunnle.
ive noticed the more i move around the closer contractions are but i just dont have any energy :(

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

With both of mine I had proper contractions (I know as I timed them) and then they went off, a couple of days later the labour started for real.

DC1 got to hospital about 11ish in the morning as couldn't cope at home any longer, he was born at 5.35pm.

DC2 had first contraction at 11 pm, she was born at 3.45am.

[StiffyByng]

I went into latent stage on Friday evening and finally made it into established labour on Tuesday morning. I was contracting almost constantly over this time, most between 3-5 minutes apart, and strapped to my TENS. I got about an hour's sleep! The baby may have been OP - the midwives weren't sure.

Anyway, she was born about 5 hours after I was examined and found to be 5cm. My midwives reckon that speedy and easy births (which mine was) often follow a long latent period barring any underlying factors causing problems.

[RhiRhi123]

My DD is 2 weeks old today. I had on off contractions from the wednesday to saturday but only in the evenings and had my show which lasted those 4 days! then went into labour at 2am on sunday morning and my DD was born at 5:44am so a total of 3 hours 44 mins labour. Was very quick! I was fully dilated by the time i got to the hosp which was only an hour and a half after it started! was all a bit of a shock really!

[CalmInsomniac]

Contraction on and off for 10 days, first labour of 8 hours start to finish (3h30 documented).

[mawbroon]

I had contractions on and off for about 3 days.

Things moved up a gear around 9am and ds2 arrived at 5.17pm, so 8hrs ish.

[LarryAdler]

Contractions on and off for 4 days, labour was 2 1/4 hours.

[tiokiko]

Started with an upset tummy, then show, then was sick - thought it was all going to be action stations but not really!

I had slow/latent labour for over 72hrs at home (irregular contractions anywhere between every 3 and 10 mins), bad enough that I couldn't sleep and was pretty uncomfortable.

Went into hosp eventually and was 4cm at 1am, DD was born at 8.30am the next morning. Second stage was 30 mins.

It wasn't great having those few days at home (esp without sleep) but I think it helped ease my body into labour as the contractions didn't really get more painful than that, just more frequent and so more intense.