What do early labour pains feel like?

[sleepingcat]

What do early labour pains/contactions feel like?
I know this is a daft question but DD (born 4.5yrs ago) was a back to back baby so all my labour pains were in my back, not one on my tummy area. My contractions with her went straight from nothing to every 4 minutes and made my back feel like it was going to be snapped in 2...lovely.

So, providing this baby (38wks) is not back to back, I have no idea what to expect. Are the contractions across the whole bump region or are they localised or does it depend on person to person? Are the early pains dull aches or stitch like pains?

I'm just trying to get prepared and be ready for alerting my poor mother who will have to come and look after DD.

Having said all this, I have spent the last 4 hours lying down (too knackered to walk around) getting aching pains in my lower bump as well as stitch like pains in my sides and a constantly aching lower back. I am feeling a bit sick and a little 'gassy'! I'm assuming these are BH as I am only just 38wks..DD was 5 days late.

So, please tell me your experiences of early labour!

I had regular period-like cramps lower down in my front. They became more intense and started to last longer but never changed location throughout labour.

I had ds back to back and felt no stomach pains however on dd who was the right way I still had back cc but unlike ds where I had constant pain peaking during cc I only had pain during a cc on dd.

I was worried about this but I can tell you I knew just like I knew on my first

My first birth was back to back and bloody hell, did it hurt. My second wasn't and by comparison it was a complete breeze. As slushy said, when not back to back, the pain stopped between contractions. (I hadn't realised going into the second birth that this was "normal".) Also, the contractions weren't nearly as painful. One of the first indications that labour was about to start was lower back ache, but once it got going I felt pain mainly at the front. The contractions started off mild and then got stronger and stronger. To be honest, it really wasn't that bad. But I do wonder if this is partly because my expectations of labour had been defined by the hell of back to back labour when, like you, I thought my back was going to break in two.

Like you, I'm now 38 weeks and have had backache all day. Am hoping it is all about to kick off!

Good luck!

Good Luck Neolara, I hope your backache is a sign of something.

I ordered a strong curry tonight in the vain attempt to help things along. I doubt anything will work and I'll be here in several weeks time! I do feel like my body is gearing up for something, but then I could be way off!

Back to back labour was not overly fun, but for me it was quite quick- 7 hours. My MW has warned me that this labour could be much quicker especially if DC2 comes out facing the right way!