Early labour? how long does it last?

[laura212]

Anyone with similar experience or advice? I've gone through labour before but it was very swift with contractions starting and getting more intense within hours, waters broke and then baby. Didn't have a long labour or lost the mucus plug previously.
Started bloody show yesterday and have passed bits since, midwife thinks things are moving the right direction. Before I started passing the plug, I started having "mild" contractions and the usual symptoms like back pain, baby feeling very low... So today is my 2nd day of contractions, they last about 30 - 40 seconds every 15-30 minutes still. Occasionally stop for a little longer. Has been pretty consistent so far, no real increase in intensity or shorter intervals overall. Only occasionally. Definitely feels like early contractions but I didn't think this phase would last this long?
Have agreed with midwife to wait out today and phone them back tomorrow morning to see what is happening as they wanted to induce me.

My labour was more long than anything else. I was due on the Sunday 30th august 2015, I was booked in for a sweep originally on the Wednesday, but I started having contractions on the Tuesday so I decided to see if things would progress naturally. They didn't so I ended up having a sweep at 3pm on the Friday (40+5).
I got to the hospital at 9 that evening, was in the birth centre by 10.30, had my waters broken around 2am, then gave birth at 6.58am the Saturday morning (40+6).
It didn't hurt or feel uncomfortable at all and it did help move things along (the head wasn't fully engaged so things wouldn't have progressed on their own).
If I’m honest I was more physically exhausted after 4 days and nights of contractions. I think if I hadn’t been so tired I would have dealt with it better.

I went into early labour on the Thursday afternoon with contractions once every 10 minutes. I did not go into active labour until midday on Saturday so was already exhausted. Sadly active labour took 18 hours before an emcs.