Slow build-up = quick labour?

[Selegas]

Hi,

I'm due tomorrow with DC1 and for the past couple of days I've had diarrhoea, nausea, period type cramps and the odd painful contraction. My baby is engaged and feels like she may fall out (I wish!). I'm also irritable and lie awake at night worrying about all sorts of crap!

I'm assuming this is all the lead up to going into labour, which is great, but if I've been getting these symptoms for a few days will my labour be quick?

I'm worried because my husband works in London (about 2 hours away) and my mum is the same distance away but in the other direction, and if it all starts to happen very quickly I don't want to be on my own.

I've had a couple of occasions when I thought it was all starting, but obviously I don't want to ring my husband and mum if its a false start!

Has anyone had symptoms for a few days before going into actual labour, and if so, was your labour really quick when it did actually start?

Thanks

I had contractions more or less every 10-20 minutes for four days and nights. Proper labour was still 12 hours when it eventually started! There's no way to tell how long your labour will be.

There's no way to tell, but I had period-like pains building up in strength over two weeks before my two more mild labours, and not much in the way of pain before the other labour which I found much more painful. All three were very quick though, 3hrs, 2hrs (no pain before) and 45 minutes. The labours that built up more slowly I drank raspberry leaf tea for a couple weeks beforehand, and I'm convinced that helped the contractions to be less painful and more effective.