Baby Teasing?/Sweep reassurance

[FairyFantastic]

40+2

Yesterday evening had shooting pains in vagina and baby seemed to be pushing down quite a lot. Last night had awful period pains, radiating around my back. Tummy hardened then went soft again. Happened two/three times 20ish mins apart but I was exhausted and despite the pain I somehow fell asleep. Woke up once with dull period pain but promptly asleep again. My tummy had dropped VERY low when I looked in the mirror this morning. Now it’s back to where it was and no more period pain/tummy tightenings.

Is baby teasing me? Is this all normal? First DC and family have a history of c-sections (not one labour has ever gone well :/ ) so can’t offer advice. Definitely felt worse than Braxton Hicks that I've had.

Booked in for a sweep next week too. Has a sweep worked for anyone here? Most people I've spoken to say it was uncomfortable and did nothing!

Sounds very similar to me now; tummy hardenings for several weeks etc.

Had a sweep this morning- it's just like having a smear test. No baby yet tho. They have very mixed results.

Good luck:-)

Sounds like the latent phase of labour - can last for days on and off I’m afraid. With my DD, I went in for my sweep but they couldn’t find the cervix as it was too high - she was born a few days later so don’t be too despondent if that happens to you!

I went into labour at 40+5. Definite contractions getting closer and stronger from 1pm, then all tailed off at 9pm despite lots of walking etc. Gave up sitting on the stupid ball at 12pm and went to bed only to be woken at 2am with contractions too painful to sleep through.

I had a sweep booked for 11am anyway, so managed by myself for a few hours, then got the TENs machine on. By the time I got to the hospital, contractions required effort to get through but I was only 2cm after like...22 hours.

I’d been dreading the sweep and it was totally fine. Literally didn’t feel a thing. Having an internal check at 25 weeks for some bleeding was more uncomfortable than my sweep.

Everything ramped up a lot quicker after that and my son was born at home 12 hours later. The whole thing was probably about 36 hours for me in total and I’m so glad I had the sweep!

Update: had more 'lightening' over the past few days, but no tummy tightenings again.

Thanks for your replies, I feel a bit better about the sweep now. I'd definitely rather have that than a full induction so I'm hoping it works! If not, I guess it's one step closer!

albanyd Any update? Hope all is well

I’d had the odd periods of contractions for a few days before my sweep. Labour kicked in within a few hours of the sweep. Daughter was born 20 hours after the sweep. Sweep definitely worked for me and I didn’t find it painful. However I think I was fully effaced and 1cm dialated at the time. I have no doubt that would have helped.