Traditional "It would appear that I am in labour, but when will it actually get going properly thread

[AnguaVonUberwald]

I have been having period like pains and backache since friday evening, last night I had an hour and a half of really intense contractions every few minutes, that suddenly stopped, had a few this morning as well, but now back to the period like pains and backache, how long could this go on for?

I think today's my due date - but I do have 3 different due dates! (based on scans, lmp, etc etc).

Good luck turtle, am . I am already 2cm dilated apparently!

Good luck turtle! Angua - really hoping the sweep does the trick! I'm expecting your baby to be a good practical joker when he/she is older given all the false starts you've had!

I'm still here, just about: spent Monday night in hospital after suddenly getting dizzy spells. My bp was all over the place (they were worried about pre-eclampsia, and induction got mentioned, which I would have grabbed with both hands at that point) but it stabilised at a normal level in the morning so I got sent home - spent yesterday in floods of tears and exhausted, and hit the lowest point of this pregnancy so far, but had 7 uninterrupted hours sleep last night so do feel better today. They don't think it is pre-eclampsia - yet - but are going to monitor me at hospital rather than GPs for rest of pregnancy.

The big relief was that the baby was fine throughout all of this - my bp and pulse was shooting up and down but he was monitoring in perfectly normal range the whole time, and he kept up his trademark karate kicks on the doctors whenever they went near my tummy.

Due date tomorrow but I don't feel at all like anything is going to happen, despite it now being 3 weeks since my first show and 4 days since the big one... Sigh. I feel like I'm definitely having an April baby now, unless I can persuade the midwife to give me a sweep tomorrow when I go into the hospital for my check up. Off for a long walk now to try and chivvy him along.

Remember to eat, drink, rest and pee darling. Make sure of it. You'll need your energy and peeing gives the baby space.

HAPPY DUE DATE TO ME!!!!

Am having a surprisingly good day, more disapointed that i have to go to antenatal check up this afternoon with gp as my lovely midwife is still away, than y th4 fact i have no aby yet.
At last midwife check up two weeks ago i was seen by a covering midwife but only just as i overheard her saying good bye to nurses after waiting half an hour and had to get receptionist to catch her and point out the list of patients she had continued over the page!

Had a few contractions last night but blew any chance of hoing into labour by losing my rag big time with dh. I had been suggesting for a feww days that he reads the instructions for the tens machine as i cant put pads on my back myself and i dont want him faffing about when i do need it. He is slightly instruction phobic to my great annoyance as i always end up pointing out the bloody obvious from the instructions. As ever he read half, decided he could figure out the rest himself and then decided to 'teach' me, i read instructions a few weeks ago, he decided that boost button wasnt required and we had a lovely discussion with me shreiking that he had to go away and repeatedly read the instructioons until he got it right.

He did admit five minutes later that the button did seem to be important and was to be used but by then i had got so stressed my body had shut down!

Never mind though, had best nights sleep in ages with dh in spare room!!!!!

Had MW today. Baby was 3/5ths at 36 weeks - im now 38 and she is free.....feels like i am going backwards!!

Thanks ladies for letting me have Easter Monday, as I did indeed oblige and give birth then!
Baby Anton Sol was born at 4pm. Waters broke at 4 am Monday morning. Birthing centre kicked me out as soon as I'd arrived as there was meconium in my waters.
Thankfully, labour ward is on the same floor (UCH), I got all strapped up to be monitored: not my ideal active birth, and a far cry from DD's all-natural ideal super-quick birth .
Baby's heart not doing well, ready for C-section within an hour. Resisted a bit, so they attempted to take a blood sample from his head although I was only 3 cm, all with no pain relief: OUCH! Couldn't get anything after 20mn of hellish procedures, got me ready for theatre, epidural etc. Then, baby LOVED the epidural and his heart got better
Anyway, sorry for long story here, will cut: in the end, syntocin drip as labour was slow, threathened C-section if I don't manage to give birth quick, pushed like mad and baby born after 4 pushes! Yeah! (expect that epidural only worked on my left side and had to go through weird half-labour pains with back-to-back baby and drip, OUCH again)

8lb1, lovely little boy, sucking avidly within minutes, we're all thrilled.

Remembering the purpose of this thread: what made me go into labour, I believe, is ENTHUSIASTIC SEX!

Good luck to all who are still waiting and thank you so much for support of this thread, I actually thought about you ladies during labour

congratulations nez

scorpio- dont worry too much, baby probably getting into a better birthing position!

nez- what a well behaved baby arriving on its allocated day, shame about the dodgy epidural sounds very weird but big CONGRATS on baby Anton

AthenaNoctua, yep, thankyou very much!

Turtle23, thanks but it sounds like you are in a pretty good position to be next, will be thinking of you.

HolidayQueen, thank you so much, I am really hoping the sweep works!! He might well be a practical joker, especially as, if they induce him, there seems to be a good chance he will be born on the 1st of April!

No news here, felt sick and had cramps today again, but nothing that felt like it was moving things forward!

CONGRATULATIONS nezelette

have been in labour since 630 and not dilating any further. baby is op and sticking...help! Ican't go on like this...cx every 2 mins and they're baaaaaaad. What do i do to budge him?

turtle - you've been doing antenatal yoga, haven't you? You may want to try and think of some positions from that designed to open up your pelvis. The two positions that were suggested to me as helping give the baby more room if things are slowing down are

1. squats - get someone to support you (either at the front or from behind) as you squat as low as you can.
2. (this one is difficult to describe in writing but is actually quite easy to do) Kneel on your left knee with your thigh facing forwards and your foot behind you. Have your right leg bent at the knee with your thigh parallel to the ground (the pose is kind of like the one-knee position of someone being knighted - howevere your right leg should be out to the right side (toes pointing right) rather than in front of you, so that your pelvis is nice and open. Then on each breath lean towards your right leg gently, pushing the stretch a little more on each breath. Switch to your left when you don't think you can push the stretch any more - do for an equal amount of breaths on the left side. This can assist in opening up your pelvis so is a good one to try if dilation is slowing down apparently.

Hope that helps. I'm not sure if these really work as I'm not there yet, but I'll be giving them a go once I am!

Good luck!

HQ xx

Turtle23 - no advice, just lots of sympathy, hope things progress soon!

turtle i had this!

15 hour latent phase with DD, she remained OP and was born OP

stay up on your feet or on a birth ball

try to get some privacy and go into yourself and see if your body will intuitively move a certain way to get baby shifted.

don;t despair, OP birth possible!

make sure your bowels and bladder are empty!

Also try being on all fours and slowly making circles - firstly just with your hips/pelvis but then gradually bringing in your whole body so you are pivoting round in a big circle on your arms and legs. Go one way first making bigger circles then switch to the other direction gradually making the circles smaller until you are just circling your hips/pelvis again.

This can be good for OP because it can take the weight of the baby's back off your spine. I think being on all fours in general, or on your knees leaning over a birthing ball, can help with this

I can't believe I'm trying to describe yoga positions online

i second that HQ

and congrats to nezlette on the safe arrival of baby Anton Sol

Congrats Nezeletter

Turtle- also had that (also OP) with ds2. He did shift but after a long time (delivery was soooo easy though which amde up for it!). All the hip stuff etc made a massive difference, and dancing around the room with lavender and rose oils on the burner really helped too.
Good luck!

Turtle, same advice as with HQ as per yoga lessons, but have not tried it yet...just enjoying cramps....but things are moving for you... congratulations..

Angua, there might be a big set of April fouls baby by the way some of the one left are behaving indeed!!!

Got a burst of energy today, sanded down a 8 seater table...trying to think it is my way of nesting..now debating am I allowed to paint it or not...!!sad I know ....

AVU - have you still not popped?

Eat Curry and have sex - now Seriously though - I hope things get moving for you soon

Littleducks - just read your tens machine post. When I finally admitted I really was in Labour DP put the TENS on me. He decided I looked in a lot of pain and notched it up. I almost flew accross the room. Not a good start to a 26 hour Labour And he had read the instructions about 50 times.

Congrats nezelette. Turtle.. I hope you've had your baby now. If not try walking up and down stairs sideways or doing the "Monkeys" (hey hey we're the monkeys) walk!

Congrats nezelette

well done, nezellette.

you heard her ladies..... get bonking

Due date today and any signs of labour have gone AWOL. Sigh. I'm physically fine and able to cope with being overdue but mentally I'm finding it difficult following my scare at the hospital earlier this week. I just want this baby out now so that I can SEE and HEAR that he is okay and get DH's opinion - I am no longer confident in myself that I can tell he is okay just from FEELING his movements IYSWIM so really panic when he is quiet/asleep and spend my whole time trying to prod him awake.

Over the past couple of weeks I've tried pineapple, long walks, bouncing on ball, nipple stimulation and lots of sex: nothing happening.

Any other tips?

HQ - I was like that when I was due with dd2. I needed to see her, so I do kwym.

other than what you are doing, and what has been suggested already, I don't know what you could do to speed things up.

[sympathetic smile emoticon]