Gone in to labour and oh abroad on business :-(

[umiaisha]

Woke up at 1.30 this morning by my waters breaking, bleeding and some mild contractions.

Luckily my lovely sister was on standby and took me the hospital. They examined me and told me I wasn't dilated at all and to walk the stairs for an hour,which brought on some mild contractions about 5 mins apart. They didn't seem particularly interested I I decided to come home to get some sleep. Since then contractions are getting stronger but not unbearable, between 5-15 mins apart.

At what point would you go back? Hospital is about 30 mins away but could be more in London traffic..

Oh won't be back until 8ish tonight at the earliest!

umiaisha, sorry to hear your OH is away until tonight.

I'd say don't do anything that might move things along! I wouldn't have walked the stairs. Don't some people find having a bath slows things up?

I think if you really want your OH there, your body might naturally stall sensing that you're "not ready".

The lovely midwife who ran our antenatal classes said to head to hospital (if that's where you're planning to give birth) when the contractions are consistently five minutes apart and/or, more importantly, last at least a minute each. Don't know if that helps?

I hope things progress slowly, steadily and comfortably until OH gets home. Good luck.

Sorry to hear your OH is away. I was told to call them when m contractions were regularly 3-5 mins apart. Luckily(?) they started off at 5 mins straight away. I called them and made our way down. I was told I could walk around, go home or stay. Our hospital was 10/15 mins drive away but on a notorious bypass so we stayed put and I insisted on being admitted

Any update OP?

Thanks for your kind words..

DD was eventually born 11pm Friday night after a lot of false starts and trips back home. OH was there and will never live down abandoning me in my hour of need! Managed to avoid an epidural but did have a couple of stitches but alls well that ends well!

Apparently 3rd babies are notoriously not as easy as 2nd ones - can't believe the first I heard of this was this week!