Will I definitely know I am in labour?

[Bubblesbubblesmybubbles]

Sounds silly I'm sure but I keep worrying I won't realise until baby is almost here. DC1 was a c sec due to being breech so I have never laboured before. Hospital is 45 mins away and my DM 2 hours away (coming to look after DC1)

@Theyweretheworstoftimes what an experience! That must have taken a long while to get over

Blimey if you got minimal notice how did you get to hospital/MLU in time

I'm lucky to live only 5min drive from the hospital. Well, 30min in rush hour but thankfully it was only 5min at 10pm!

If you had a short first labour then it's pretty certain your second will be even shorter. My first was 6hrs active labour, second 1hr. My friends all told me to expect a fast labour but I didn't think it would be that fast. Too fast IMO, didn't have time yo do anything I'd planned!

You'll definitely know you are in labour but how long it'll be is like asking how long a piece of string is.
With my first I didn't realise until my waters went (in hindsight, I should've clicked but I didn't). Dd was born less than 2 hours later.
This time round I had an inkling things were starting at about 9:30am, but assumed it was the very start and we could have days to go.
I called dh home from work around 1pm as thought things were progressing and was worried we'd end up cutting it fine.
At 3pm we called the hospital and they said I sounded fine so stay at home, I had one final contraction as I was about to hang up and they changed their mind and told me to come in. Thankfully we'd already asked the inlaws to collect dd from school in case.
We left for the hospital straight away and arrived 30mins later.
Ds was born 2mins after arrival.
I'd honestly recommend calling for backup at the first twinge just in case.

I see threads all the time on here filled with ‘oh you’ll Definately know’ but I’d say otherwise based on my own experiences!

DS1 I had been expecting as a ftm the classic pain you hear about in your bump and it being ‘the worst pain ever’ so when I started getting back ache and period pains I thought it couldn’t be. Even when they ramped up a little I wasn’t convinced as I was 3 weeks early. I eventually told dh to come home from work at 12.30pm he was on the phone to the midwives again when he got home whom unbeknownst to be told him to get me to hospital ASAP as I sounded different in the background to the last call. We arrived at 1.50pm and DS arrived at 2.09pm after I was wheeled in on a wheelchair from the car park.

DS2 7 weeks ago I had loads of false starts for weeks before so when it started again at 8.45pm one night thought ‘here we go again’ by 10pm I thought I’d time them as they felt more and dh convinced me to get in the car at 11.25pm arriving at hospital at 11.50pm DS2 arrived at 00.03 after I was again rescued by wheelchair from the car park by sprinting midwives! I should add when I’d rang they had said ‘sounds like you’ve got a while to go yet but if your first was quick trust your body and come in when you feel you need to’.

So yes by the time they were literally ready to be born I ‘knew’ but actually until that point I really wasn’t sure!