Signs of early labour?

[Hollymae1]

Hi ladies, I just want some advice and to hear your birth stories.

I'm almost 36 weeks and on Saturday I was in hospital with contractions, my cervix were closed and water hadn't broke they said. I went home and since then the period pains/contractions have continued on and off... Last night from 9pm to 10pm the contractions were every 2-3 minutes lasting 45 seconds to just over a minute. Triage said to stay home as my waters hadn't broke and i hadn't lost my mucus plug either.

Didn't sleep all night and the contractions have continued this morning but are on and off. I've also been having a lot of nausea on and off, headaches, more bowl movements and also shooting pains/sharp pains in my vagina?

Can anyone give me some advice, is this just braxton hicks or could it be early labour signs? I've been told the babies head is very low down too.

Sounds exactly like me and I'm now 40+1 and it's still going on :( good luck op

This has been happening to me since 35 weeks. I'm 38+4 now!

Currently in the same situation.

Regular contractions so I was in hospital from Monday 2am until yesterday tea time.
The doctor finally came to see me and examined me (yesterday am) after 24hrs of being in and my contractions started to ease off and become irregular. she did a sweep as I was 2cm dilated, cervix ripe and baby's head 1/5 engaged so practically out, she told me the baby was ready to come but may take a few hours yet so to go home and bounce on a ball and try and relax.
She was happy to let me progress into labour even though I'm 36+4 because baby is a good size and it's number 4.
Still waiting and not progressing so phoned the midwife tonight and she said we keep babies inside as long as possible so basically there is nothing they can do?? Such contradictions it's unreal.
Happy for me to advance into full labour yesterday but today I've got to wait 🤷🏼‍♀️
Might be time to whip out the old wives tales xx

Has ur mucus plug gone yet? (bloody show) that was the early sign for me.

You’ll know if it’s real contractions because walking around makes them come on stronger but Brixton hicks are the opposite they go away when you walk around.

I lost my plug at the start of the week when I went to the toilet and a couple of days later, woke up with period type pains. I got the weirdest urge to shower, moisturise and straighten my hair but the pain only got stronger and wouldn’t go away. Went into hospital for 2pm and baby born just after 4pm.
Nothing in the lead up at all!

What happened @Hollymae1? I'm feeling exactly the same and desperate to know if it's early labour or braxton hicks!

Hi lovely, no it didn't progress into anything, babies head is now 3/5 engaged but no waters broke and no mucus plug! Still waiting, I'm still having the odd contractions and period pains but I'm putting it down to Braxton Hicks now!

I was like that for quite a while @Hollymae1. My births were relatively quick, first one about 8 hours, second one less than 4.

The MW said that those little twinges at home had done a lot of the work