V hard tummy - constant BH?

[BeginnerSAHM]

Hello - I have had an extremely hard stomach since 5 am and period-like pains. This is my third baby and I have a history of earlyish (first baby 38 weeks, so fine, and second baby 36 weeks) and very fast labours (2.5 hrs and just over 1 hr from first tiny sign to baby arriving), with no warning signs before things started. I'm 33+3 today. I'm staying at my parents' and am about 25 min drive from a hospital.

Has anybody had a rock hard stomach that lasts for 5+ hours? It can't possibly be Braxton Hicks for this long so I assume it's just my uterus warming up . Maybe? The 'period pains' have gone and it just feels tight - not painful. I know what contractions feel like!! I'd normally ignore it but am trying to spot even really small signs because I don't want to have an early baby unattended. It would almost certainly need help breathing if born under 34 weeks.

Probably should have stayed at home - this is the last weekend I was planning on being anywhere else! (Although am still 20 mins drive from nearest hospital at home if the traffic is bad...)

Is your tummy going soft at all? Any bleeding or sign of waters? I would call your local labourward, I reckon they will ask you to go in for a check.

It went a bit softer when I had a bath but is tensing up a lot since - it's hard more often than soft. I'm wondering whether my 'super fast' labours were actually normal speed ones but I only started feeling them when I was about 7 cm dilated. I'll call the local labour wars just in case. Thanks toastandmarmite (fab user name by the way!).

I would get checked, this happened to me at 32 weeks but I was in a lot of pain with it too, baby arrived 12 hours later!

Eek! Thanks

Hope things are ok with you.

All ok. The midwife asked me to go in and I was monitored for half an hour. When I first got there my stomach was rock hard but it was soft all through the monitoring so there we are! And it got hard again as I walked out (and is now). Anyway, baby's heartbeat was fine and I'm assuming it's just my uterus warming up or something like that. Thanks for replying! (Got hospital bag in the car, just in case though....)