Stop start labour since weds. Planned homebirth with 2yo DS. Advice please!

[Up2nogood]

I'm 40+5 today and I've been in (stop-start) labour since weds night. Prior to that I also had 3 nights of mild contractions between 5-9pm. Weds, up ALL night as contractions got stronger. Then DS woke up at 6 and by the time we got sorted with childcare it had all died off. Mw came yesterday morning- only 3cm dilated. Gave me a sweep. Got a couple of hours rest then it started to pick up again from 2pm. Gradually getting stronger. Contractions under 5mins apart 40 secs long. Then had bath and half hour rest and stop....nothing!!!!! Left DS with grandma and went for walk, still nothing.

I've had a cold for a fortnight and have been sleeping terribly/hardly at all so have been exhausted. We literally sold our house 3 weeks ago too so have been house hunting etc which has been a bit stressful.

Anyway, I did get the BEST nights sleep last night in weeks, got a good 8/9 hours. But still nothing. DS is rarely away from us and hasn't seen us now for 24 hours after a fairly stressful morning yesterday. He's 23 months. I'm reluctant to leave him all day again , especially not knowing if I'll actually be successful through labour any time soon, but I did find being with him yesterday morning stressful. Both my mum and husband are off work today so I suppose I do have options, just not sure what's best.

My plan is a home birth, if at all possible I'd prefer to stay out of hospital. But my waters did go last night in the bath, about 4pm - not sure if it was all my waters though.

Just wondered if anyone had any advice on managing through a prolonged stop start labour with a young child? And staying at home. What about my waters?

Any miracle ways to move things on?

Hi lovely! I would say get your DH to take your DS out today while you get yourself some acupuncture - it's supposed to work a treat for kicking off labour. Do you have a hypbobirthing CD you could listen to? You need to monitor your temperature if you're pretty sure your waters have gone. Hopefully things will get going today if waters have gone - my waters also went at about 4am with DD1 and she had arrived by that evening. Will be keeping everything crossed for you x

Also if you can, try and get some sleeeeep today

At my hospital they induce if waters go and nothing else happens for 24 hrs so might be worth calling your midwife to check home birth still ok??

Thanks pink good idea re acupuncture I had been thinking about that before labour started.

Re waters going, mw won't check to see, I've just been told to wear a pad to look for leakage. Which I've not had. Just lots and lots of mucus. I think it's 48hrs after waters going for induction. That's nhs guidelines that I've found. It's been 20 hours now.

Do you know the baby's position? If not in the optimum position this could be contributing to the stop-start contractions. I have seen some positions to try getting into which are supposed to encourage optimum positioning, you can find it under "spinning babies". They also have a bit about encouraging a good labour. I looked at it but it did not convince me enough to try them as I thought it looked a bit dodgy getting into some of the positions & I could hardly move due to SPD at that point anyway, but if you're keen it could be worth a try...

How are you doing? Lots of mucus is a fantastic sign! Hopefully you're in labour and not reading this now. Let us know!

No, I'm still here and not in labour! Cant sit or do anything I'm so uncomfortable! Can barely play with ds and have almost zero patient for 2 yo 'ways'!!

Waves to OP :) have you got a ball you can get bouncing on? this helps with positioning and really helps your posture. I progressed really well with DS when on my ball. Literally didn't get off it for a few days. Thining of you xx

coconuts I think that's what did the trick weds night after bouncing for an hour but I just cant bare to sit on it any more. I was like that once labour started with ds. Actually sitting is pretty much impossible at the moment. I lock after 10 mins!! Ordered a curry tonight- eating that off my knee was interesting !

How are things this morning, OP?

Checking in on you and hoping you're currently enjoying newborn cuddles

She came!!! Hurrah!! Saw mw Monday. Waters fully in tact so had a sweep. Mild contractions started about 3 slowly increasing till 7 then stopped! but then they geared back up a few hours later and she made a super fast appearance with the midwife only just making it in time (I'm talking 5 mins with hubby saying 'don't push !!!' and me yelling 'im not 'bleeping' pushing!! All very dramatic and exciting. I had a little girl, 8lb 15oz- She clearly like a grand entrance!

Congratulations!

Congratulations ??