4th night of contractions.... help

[dappply]

I'm 40 plus 2 and been contracting every 5-10 minutes since saturday night now. No pattern, tail off intermittently in the day, ramp up for a bit, then die away again. Pretty painful, I'd say about halfway to as painful as they got with my first labour. Pain in back, thighs and pubic area. Had a show monday morning, got checked over in hospital, all fine, sent home.

Support please? so tired, can't sleep, trying so hard to keep my spirits up. Should i go back to hospital? A bit scared too as i didn't want to go in till in established labour, scared they'll want to put me on the drip , which I had with DS and hated.

Are they more painful tonight than on the previous 3 nights?

You might find that thongs happen pretty fast when they do happen - when I had dd2 9 weeks ago I was contracting as you describe for 2 nights but nothing during the day. When established labour happened, it was all over in 45 minutes. One of the midwives said that those 2 nights of mild contractions were obviously mild but effective.

How far are you from the hospital?

Is your anxiety affecting your ability to cope with the contractions? It's certainly preventing you from resting, which is the most important thing you should be doing now.

If you're worried things are starting to happen I'd say go and get checked over. You don't have to go on a drip - you are allowed to say no to any medical intervention. Don't let them thinkbyou haven't got a choice - as long as the baby isn't distresed there is no need to augment your labour unless you want to.