Did you sense labour was near in the hours/ days leading up to it? Or did it just start out of nowhere?

[IMissTheLittleBluePackets]

I'm doing allllllll of the things to induce myself. Sex, eating curry, sniffing essential oils, drinking raspberry tea etc.

And I still don't feel any different. 😬🤬😡

I wonder how most women feel pre- labour, whether there's a sense of 'something is going to happen tonight' or whether it just appears out of nowhere?

What was it like for you? Did you have any inkling? What was the first sign that things were starting?

On DD2s birthday... (on her actual due date) I went with DD1 to her nursery bake sale. Internally giggled a lot at everyone faces when they asked when the baby was due and I said "today" as they looked at me like I was going go just deliver there in front of them, but was actually having no signs of labour. Went home, had lunch.... and phoned the midwife. She arrived a few hours after that. Cue another round of WTF faces that they had seen me hours before not in labour.

And DD2 was my relatively sedate birth story.

Absolutely nothing with all three DC. No B-H contractions, no mucus plug (show) and waters were broken in active labour.
From first twinge...
DC1 3 hours
DC2 45 Minutes (back to back with arm up)
DC3 45 minutes.

Went to bed as normal, didnt have any braxton hicks or signs before hand. Woke at 8.30am with my waters breaking, baby came at 4pm on his due date.

Wow….so quick
My first was 27 hours back to back

I felt ill 2 days before and missed my mum’s birthdays gathering, the day before I felt like a period was about to start. Waters went in the night.

I did. My sister told me she’d had a sensation of a hot poker stabbing her in the womb, just once - but very distinct, and went into labour within 48 hours, with both her pregnancies… after this, it happened to me, with both of mine too

Nothing at all, went to bed as normal, woke up about 3am to a massive sharp pain and my waters went about 5 minutes later.

I was nearly two weeks overdue with both dc. Dd2 I had been to see the midwife at the hospital and she tried to do a sweep, said it was impossible as I was nowhere near beginning labour and I would have to book in for an induction in a few days. Went into labour that night, dd2 born in a couple of hours. Dd1 I was going to bed thinking I would never give birth, had a strong contraction and that's how they continued (dd1 was unfortunately not born in a couple of hours!). I did lose the mucus plug before dd1 but it was long time before birth. My body seems to go from nothing to push out this baby!

Not really, no. With first, she came at 37+5, absolutely no idea. In retrospect, I did burst into tears the night before on the way home and felt really emotional. But had absolutely no idea. Waters went pop at 2am and woke me up and she was born 11 hours later.

2nd one was born at 40+5. I really thought he was going to be even earlier as had some contractions at 35 weeks. But then nothing so there was a lot more waiting around. Until I woke up at 6am with some very light cramping, I had no idea. He was born 9 hours later.

Lost my plug at 36+3, started contractions at 36+5 but didn't know it was labour as it was obviously very early and thought it was just cramps but I didn't feel well with it. 24 hours later, realised contractions were regular and went to hospital. Was sent home with a tens machine and paracetamol. Was told to have a bath and a cup of tea like I was making it all up. Went back in the night, had my waters manually broken and DS born at 37 exactly.

Dd1, just started out of nowhere 11 days overdue. I had had a couple of sweeps by then and was booked for an induction at 40+14

DD2, had a sweep on the Thursday at 38+4 to make me favourable for the induction they’d booked for the following Thursday (I had low volume of waters and baby was measuring small so they wanted her out). Had a bloody show the Friday night and then Sunday morning, walked round Tesco and felt what little waters I had left bulging. Early Sunday afternoon they went just as we were getting ready to go to the park. Went to get checked and they sent me home after some monitoring as contractions hadn’t started so ended up being induced 24hours after my waters went as they never started on their own. Had a pessary, went for a walk and had a baby in my arms 5 hours later.

So in my experience, get an induction booked and the baby tends to arrive before that date!

It was a Tuesday three days before I actually gave birth on the Friday. We were round at a friend's house and I was sitting on their sofa and out of nowhere all my stomach muscles clenched, like they do when you have period cramps come on suddenly. It didn't hurt much, and after about 30 seconds it went away again. It didn't happen again that evening, and the next morning I had an appointment with the midwife anyway. I told her, and she said that it meant things were moving on, but don't hold your breath because it was still ten days until my due date, and most first-timers were often up to a fortnight late. I knew straight away that I wouldn't have to wait that long and to prove it, I had another contraction when I was with her. They started properly late the next day, and I had DD the day after that.

Everyone's different I think, and wishing you all the best. It will be soon.

First baby, I'd booked a day off to get the house cleaned (nesting). I had one day left of work before having 3 weeks of maternity leave before the due date.

Went to lift the hoover at 5pm out of the cupboard and my waters went.

I was at work at midnight clearing my desk and had the baby the next day almost exactly 24 hours after the waters broke.

2nd baby, my waters broke when I was in bed asleep at 2am one day before my due date.

I'd had the baby before 8am.

All totally out and f nowhere.

No sense at all, it just started at 11pm, went to hospital at 3pm the next day when it became unmanageable at home and DS arrived just before 6pm! Waters didn’t go until just before he arrived.

Sympathies Back to back with an arm up is the pits. Thanks for that, DD. 😐

Nesting was a real thing with DC1. It wasn’t what I was doing (I was doing various things on my pre-baby list) but it was the intense joy I was getting out of minor housekeeping tasks. I went into labour that night.

DC2 was more out of the blue but it was my due date so not a surprise either.

Good luck OP!

With DS, not a clue although looking back there were signs a couple of days before but I just didn't recognise them because it was three weeks early and wasn't expecting it. I had an entire day of uncomfortable pulling and stretching but that disappeared overnight. My ankles then ballooned and I was really sore down below, like the feeling of being bruised and swollen which lasted a couple of days then waters then broke unexpectedly when going to the toilet. That was the first sign of labour and it all went quickly from there.

With DD, she arrived five weeks early and I just knew she was coming early, not least because my mum was my childcare for DS and she had to go abroad five weeks before the due date so of course baby was going to arrive. For about a week before DD arrived, I was losing my mucous plug and bad lots of bump discomfort then mild contractions. I was in work and messaged my husband to say I think I'm in early labour but I'm going to stay on to do a, b, c etc. I had been so so tired as well and people in work were saying you don't look great. One person actually told my boss to send me home. I got home that night and the sensations were more frequent so decided to go to maternity assessment (baby had some complications and DS was early so they decided to bring me in to check). As I had no childcare, I drove myself to the hospital and turns out I was in labour so they kept me in! Things progressed quite slowly with minimal pain until 8cm then it was full swing. Baby arrived just as my mum was boarding her plane home - if she hadn't been delayed she'd have been mid-air not knowing what was happening. Can kind of laugh now but was raging at the time.

No both times I had a Niagara Falls moment out of the blue including in the street which was pretty awful but close to house, both babies were early 2 and 4 weeks.

was hungry, ate a ridiculous amount, which was unusual and slept all day.

Bang on my due date I stood up to get something in a Love Island ad break and felt my waters go. Like someone else said, I felt as “normal” as normal gets that late in pregnancy in that I didn’t have any cramps or Braxton Hicks or anything. Like you I was trying everything - had a prawn vindaloo twice in the days leading up!

With my eldest apart from braxton hicks and being 40 + 5 I didn’t have any inkling the day before I have birth, just went to bed feeling normal and woke up at 4am with my waters breaking!!
With my second I had contractions off and on for about a week before the birth and the whole day before in early labour before going into proper labour around 11pm

Nope. First was 5 days late and a sweep got her moving and my second was on her due date but the day before was the only time I thought things were moving as I lost my plug but before that morning at all

DS1, I did not want to be left alone the day before my contractions started. It didn't help that I was snowed into the house with two painful conditions that severely compromised my mobility and dexterity and left me unable to drive, walk more than a few metres or get to a bus stop. I just felt really vulnerable. The next day was better, and I was taken out (could manage if I was driven door to door) which was when I realised that the "Braxton Hicks" were getting rather regular. Unfortunately that was 40 hours before he actually emerged into the world.

DS2 had a false labour with regular contractions for a few hours which annoyingly got me stuck in hospital without food or pillows for 24 hours after they stopped.
A couple of days later, I dragged my body to the MW on my crutches and developed quite a nasty back ache which I thought was down to the extreme endurance sport of going 400m on foot, and ended up hugging DS shortly after midnight. After DS1's drawn-out entrance to the world, I was surprised that DS2 turned up 10 hours after the backache started. I was also stunned that I was 5-6cm dilated at the hospital and that it didn't take 24+ hours to get to that stage. He was actually born within 3 hours of arrival at labour ward.

Nope, all four times it came out of nowhere. I did have a slightly unusual way of starting labour with my first born but I wouldn’t recommend it.