Is it starting?? Contractions or Braxton Hicks?

[JitterBug2]

I've been having what feel like intense period pains all morning, lasting about a minute each then fading and coming again about 20 to 30 minutes later. Also have been feeling a bit constipated but I've been eating lots of fruit so I'm not - all regular - sorry if thats TMI.

I've also been having what I assumed were Braxton Hicks for the last week or so - cramps like period pains but more of a dull ache than the intensity of the current pains.

I'm 40 +4 so am starting to get a bit impatient, so it could just be that I'm reading to much into it.

Any thoughts/comments fro those who've been there before, would be appreciated.

Sounds like it could be contractions, i guess only time will tell!! Dont panic and just wait and see what happens. mine felt like that but it was another day b4 it kicked in proper. Keep us posted!!

Sounds like how my 2nd labour started keep timing and see if they get closer or last longer. Good luck.

Seems to have died off a bit now. Still having cramps but not as intense and not as regular. Braxton Hicks perhaps or maybe pre-labour(?) or perhaps I'm just reading to much into it.

Trying to keep busy to distract myself... Started the carb loading though - Just in case ;)

Thanks for the advice!

I'm due any day and been having similar over last fortnight. Was advised to take a couple of paracetamol as could just be your ligaments/pelvis preparing and pain will subside. If pain does not subside, sounds like you are on the way!

With DC2 I walked around for 2 days in early labour without realising what it was (Duh!
Although in my defence I was induced with DC1 so had never been in natural early labour before!)
I thought I was having Braxton Hicks as I was only 32 weeks. I only got them checked out when I had a bleed - it turned out that I was contracting and was 2cm dilated! Thankfully they managed to stop the labour with nerfedipine and all was well in the end.
The only difference I can describe between my Braxton Hicks and the contractions is that the contractions made me breathless and as I was having one, I became less aware of everything around me. Not sure if that helps or not???

Good luck x

The latest....
Pains started again last night on a more regular basis - about every 4 to 5 minutes and lasting for around a minute at about 9pm.

Carried on this way but increased in their intensity, so at around midnight I phoned the hospital. I spoke to a doctor who said they sounded like contractions but advised me to wait until the interval was around 3 minutes...and that often at that stage they often just stop. I'm only about 15 mins from the hospital so there's no rush to get there.

So DH (by now starting to get v twitchy) and I decided to try and get some sleep and see what happened.

Really glad that we didn't rush to hospital as the pains seem to have died off again (or at least are now milder and not as frequent) and we both managed to get about 5 or 6 hours sleep.

I've now sent a slightly over-excited DH off to work - he's only about 10-15 mins away if anything starts happening more seriously - and I'm planning to have a restful day!

enjoy your day! sleep sleep sleep !