HELP-is this a "show" or am i bleeding?

Yum - if it is 'show' then you have no cause to worry. Show is sticky and can be clear or blood streaked. It can also be bright red but mucousy. Fresh red bleeding on it's own should be investigated because it can be a sign of haemorrhage.
Women can have 'show' on more than one occasion - there is loads of it in there. It is OK to have a bath (used to be advised against) because there isn't an increased risk of infection. Sometimes women have a show after an internal, even a few days later.
As long as the baby is moving around and you are happy to stay at home, that is where you should be. Once you have regular, painful contractions that stop you in your tracks, then you should go in. Depends how far away the hospital is when you want to go in. Usually regular contractions every 5 mins is time enough unless you live miles away. Good luck.

Zebra - that means the blood is fresh.... which means that something is bleeding. I think thats why its very important to get it checked. It can signify other problems... erosion of the cervix for example.

My mum 'spotted' at full term with my brother (11yrs old) and she had to go to the hospital. Where they induced her immediately. Thankfully he was fine, but they were obviously concerned at the fact that it was fresh blood.

Why is it important to seek medical care if the blood is "bright red" -- if there's only a little of it? I understand why to see a doc. if it's more than a few blobs or spots.

Timing CTX wasn't reliable for me. I would go with "persistent" and "can't ignore them" rather than "increasing" as a sign.

One thing, Yum, if you get to the point of feeling bearing down pressure, do go in immediately? If you never felt labour the first time around you may not realise what that means; that's how it was for me and friends who had medicated first labours and never felt the bearing down pressure first time, so didn't recognise it for what it was 2nd time.

Ooh! I'm so excited for you!

Just about to say the same BK.

Yum - you don't elaborate on what you class as a 'show'.

Mine was a pale pink jelly-like blob (sorry folks).

If it's bright red.... it should be checked out though.

Good luck. Looking forward to the birth announcement!

BK, thats a point..yum you didn't say whether there was just blood (no mucus), the colour or how much.

yum if it is bright red blood you should get it checked out asap. hopefully it is nothing to worry about. good luck!

typing with one hand so excuse typos!

With first babe I had one 'smear' type show 3 weeks before labour started, this second time round holy cow! Show began 24 hours before labour, there was so much I thought I had given birth to a family of jellyfish. And there was alot of blood amongst the mucus.

I told the m/w this after the birth he said that was perfectly normal, some women ( esp those with any asian heritage, but not only asian women) have very bloody shows.

I remember Bron asking on mumnset if she could go swimming after a show and mears told her it would be fine, so I wouldn't worry about infection!!!

It just means that your cervix is softening and ripening.

As to timing contractions...I always thought it was timing from the start of one to the start of the other as well as timing how long they actually last.

HTH...we should see a birth announcement soon then?

you can usually call the labour ward for advice this may put your mind at rest. Or try ringing NHS Direct. Sometimes the labour ward will arrange for a community midwife to check on you just to make sure everything is okay. It most probably is just the leftovers from your show though.

I would have thought that as long as you are careful about avoiding infections (don't take any baths, now), you are ok to just hang and see what happens. The mucus plug was protecting the entry to uterus, which is why I thought of infection.

Not an professional, though. Mears should be able to advise. I don't think they'd induce you just on a show, just would give you guidelines about infection. I'll be interested to hear what Mears says, though.

Certainly sounds like the start of labour to me! Good luck, get as much sleep and rest now as you can. Sometimes the irregular CTX can go on for a week, so don't get too excited.