so, what counts as a contraction again?

[SenoraPostrophe]

serious question!

getting twinges all over the place but having trouble deciding whether they're contractions or not (think most are not). how am i supposed to time them? and how many mins apart before embarking on a 20 min trip to hosp do you think?

was told by my hospital when you can't talk or walk during them and they last about a minute it's time to head in.

that said mine were like that for 12 hours before i went in both times and i was 3cm when i went in both times so that may not be very helpful!

if you have a mobile phone use the stopwatch on it to time them, use the lap time function and just press the button at the start and finish of each one, then you can look at the list and see exactly how long each one was and how long in between (my dp came up with this after i burst into tears as i'd forgotton what time the last contraction had been at for the 20th time!)

HTH and good luck!

cool - most are not contractions then.

ds did come very fast, but I was getting braxton hicks contractions for 2 or 3 days beforehand, hence the confusion.

Just in case anyone finds it helpful...here is a free online contraction timer.

You just set it running and then hit the spacebar on your computer/laptop every time a contraction starts and finishes and it keeps track for you.

contractionmaster