Irregular contractions... help!

[FrizzyFrazzled]

I am 40+2, had a sweep yesterday and think I am having "real" contractions. Have been having them for the past two hours or so, getting a bit closer together, have called hospital etc and prepped my parents they might be coming up later to look after DS while we go.
However, my contractions are really irregular - they were 15 minutes apart pretty regularly, now though hey are a bit all over the place. The last three have been 11 minutes, 12 minutes, eight minutes then six mins apart respectively. Lasting about 30 or 40 seconds, haven't been timing the length of the contraction.
Is this not labour then, if they are not really regular?
I know I sound really thick, but with DS my waters broke as the first sign of labour, so there was none of this am-I aren;t-I!
Any help would be appreciated - don't want to be sent home from hospital for being too early on, but dont want to end up giving birth in the car!!

I'm worried about not knowing too, as both of my labours have started with waters going, then straight into big contractions. With my ds I'm not sure they ever got regular, they were just painful and long from the start and his was a very quick birth. Are you under community midwife care? I'd give the team a call if you are, they can send someone out to assess you before going to hospital. I found this a massive help tbh as I'd have stayed at home much longer than I did with ds otherwise, when they came I was already 5-6cm and he was born just over an hour after we arrived.

Mine tend to start off regularly then suddenly get closer together like you describe, with my last one I woke up in the night with them 10 mins apart, within 3-4 contractions they were 8 mins apart for 2, then 7 mins for a few then down to 4 mins for a while. They might not be set the clock by them regular but they are getting closer together, are they getting stronger? If they carry on getting close together you should check with the midwife, after your first one labour can be very quick.

You can use the timer on this site to time them for you, you just click the button when one starts and click again when it stops

contractionmaster.com/

Tbh it sounds like you have a while to go. Possibly days. They could well stop altogether for a period of time.

The best thing to do is rest and ignore as best you can at this stage.

Im in Australia, so we don't have that - it's just a case of, Call the hospital and they will trot out the "come in when they are five minutes apart, 50 seconds long" line. Which is fine, but mine are really all over the place.
You have freaked me out!!! I guess I will just hang around another hour or two until they are all between four and six minutes apart?? Very frustrating to not know what to do!

Sorry cross posted, that was to fuckity.
That link is great, thanks Rikalaily. Yours sound similar to how mine are.
Starlight, I hope its not days!! I have been havin braxton hicks for a few days, but these do seem far more intense, stop-me-in-my-tracks ones.
Will just wait and see! Thank you for your advice :)

I had this on the monday. Was 3cm dilated. They monitored me but the 'contractions' I could feel did not fit with the contractions on the monitor.

It went off after about 3 hours and I didn't have DD until the friday.

sorry

Had my little girl 12 hours after writing my last post! Hurray!

Congratulations!

Well done and welcome baby girl Frizzy!

congratulations!

Congratulations Frizzy! I was reading your post as it was 'easy' last time, my waters broke dramatically and that was that. Had loads of Braxton hicks every day- had 7 strong ones this am and was really hoping it was something more- but they went off as usual. I'm 38 weeks and had my first dd at 37+ 6 so kind of didn't think I'd get this far!! I'm in Australia too, whereabouts are you out of interest? Hope you are all happy and doing well :-)