Is this normal?

[BobTheFishermansWife]

I'm 38+4 today and have my 39 week midwife appointment on Wednesday. All through this pregnancy I've been adament this baby will be late. BUT:

Around 11pm on Saturday night I started having twinges, not overly painful but tightening of my bump, and it has definitely dropped.

Managed to get some sleep but was awake around 3.45am Sunday. Twinges were about 15 minutes apart. Managed to nap through the morning so clearly some were further apart, but they woke me when they happened.

DP and I met up with my parents in the afternoon, nothing between half 2 and 3pm while we walked to the pub. Sat down in the beer garden enjoying the sunshine, twinges started again this time every 10 minutes or so.

5pm went home, they started to come at a rate of 4 minutes, 6 minutes, 8 minutes, 4 minutes etc. On the walk home I was doubled up in pain a few times and was semi carried at a couple of points.

At 7pm I rang the mat unit to get some advice, lovely midwife, took all the details, advised that it could be early labour but they can only diognose retrospectively, fair enough. She told me to take some paracetamol and have a bath, as I've not had a show, my waters haven't broken and baby has been moving fine in between.

We're now nearly 24 hours after that call and the twinges are now a solid 10 minutes apart.

They hurt, but nothing has changed. I can't have this baby in the next few days (only because this week is so busy for birthdays, I have 7 family members and 4 friends with birthday between yesterday and Saturday, I can't deal with another one, July's a bad month in my family as my dad told me 😂)

Will they stop, or am I going to be gasping in pain until things decide to start moving?? ?

I know there is no point presenting myself to the hospital because they will just send me back home.

Has anyone else been sat around this long just waiting?

Sounds like latent labour. It can go on for many days.

I was in early labour for a day before it kicked off. Saw midwife in the morning (scheduled appointment) and was having contractions. Went on like that for the whole day. Some hurt some didn’t some further apart but they kept coming and coming. Wasn’t until 1 o clock in the morning that it all ramped up and I could tell the contractions meant business. They (very quickly) got closer and closer together and I’d given birth by 4am.
I’ve heard it can be a few days though of early labour but I would expect baba imminently to be honest.

Lots of people experience slow (sometimes called prodromal labour) for a while before the real thing, “active labour” cranks up.
I’ve never experienced it personally - my labours are full throttle from start to finish. But my best friend had her third in April and had what you describe from the Friday evening, and her baby was born early hours of the Sunday morning after only about 2 hours of active labour!

Thank you all 😊
So I'm totally normal and it's just a case of waiting it out.

This sounds exactly like what my friend had recently when she was in labour. On off painful contractions for a couple of weeks before her son made an appearance. She was convinced she was in labour and went in multiple times only for them to stop completely. Apparently she said the contractions were pushing his head down but it wasn’t building up enough to break her waters and then they would stop altogether. Don’t be afraid to go into hospital though. They can at least see how far gone you are in terms of dialation etc.

I’m 38 + 3 and also have the July birthday issue lol
Husbands is the 2nd, bro in law 1 is the 4th bro in law 2 the 9th, I am 30 on the the 14th! It’s a busy month. I have assigned myself to the fact he will arrive in July and it’s either going to be close to my birthday or on the same day!! (God help me!)
I’ve had a few twinges too that come and go but nothing super painful just uncomfortable. My waters broke with my first on 39 + 5 so I don’t know if same will happen again as this was a good sign labour was just around the corner for me! I’ve got my fingers crossed I get a warning like this again!

@BobTheFishermansWife how are you getting on? I was in slow labor for about 10 days. It then stopped completely for 3 or 4 days, then boom, waters broke and baby came.

Hi @hmmmbop!
I'm good thank you for checking. Had a rather dramatic morning. Contractions picked up over night, were still a bit far apart at 5 minutes, but I called the mat unit and asked if they could check me as I had been sick and when I did contract they were crippling.
I arrived at the hospital at 9.15am, had 5 contractions walking from the car to the unit, 2 in reception, one in the lift and another as I got into the triage suite, they checked and took me to the delivery suite fully dilated and at 9.38 this morning my other half and I welcomed our baby boy into the world. He is lush 😍

Thank you again x

Congratulations
God this sounds just like when I had my daughter!

Well done 👍 xx

Thanks @blondie
It will be a fun story to tell, but my word I wasn't expecting that speed!!
I hope you do get the warning you got last time, they popped mine in delivery 😳 xx

Congratulations ❤️❤️❤️❤️