How far till labour?

[Faifly]

Hi everyone,
I'm 38w5d with my first so pretty inexperienced. Been having contractions since Monday morning which started as period-type pains and are gradually getting stronger. There isn't a solid pattern to them yet, they're roughly about 20-30 min apart and lasting between 20 and 50 seconds. They seem to be less frequent when I'm up and moving, but when one's on the way, moving or changing positions won't make it stop or numb it down. By now they're very painful, tho I'd guess still a far cry from proper labour ones. They don't go from top down as I was told proper ones should, but are only in my lower abdomen, below the navel. They are certainly some type of contraction tho (starting - intensifying - easing), and also go into my backside, so it often feels like I need to poo (sorry if this is TMI ). Since this morning, I've also been having a dull pain in my lower back (I've been really lucky throughout the term and had no back aches thus far). I've also spotted wee traces of dead tissue in my discharge - I'm pretty sure this was a bit of the mucus plug coming out. Dunno if that's of any use, but the Little Pea is stirring a lot, and some of its movement are now also giving me a bit of (much weaker) "period" pain.
My question is - I know it can only be a wild guesstimate - but what would you say my chances are of going into labour by Saturday? I'm asking bc my husband works till like 4 am on Fridays so if there's a fair chance he'd need to find cover.
Midwife said it could be between 24 hrs and 5 days after the plug coming out, but I'm still confused bc I didn't see it all come out in one piece so there's probably a lot of it still left
Any ideas?

In my experience my shows have been unmistakeable and distinct from normal discharge in quantity ie much more. So I agree with you that yours has only partially come away. The contractions and the fact it has started to come away are signs that something is afoot, obviously.

You want a guess as to whether you'll have started by Friday night/Saturday morning?? Hmm, I think although you could still be in the same situation come friday, my advice would be better to be safe than sorry. What's the worst that can happen - he loses a night's pay? Or on the night it all goes off and he has to spend his time ringing around and asking favours before he can leave work.
Could he line someone up as standby for just in case?

Thanks e3chick,
problem is he owns the business so anything go wrong at work it's his pain in the a**e and seen as it's a very small business he can only arrange so many fridays off until he runs out of workers to ask for favours seen as it's our first baby, we thought it would be a bit late rather than a bit early, so he'd arranged for cover in weeks 40 and 41.. which can be moved to 39 and 40, but if the Pea doesn't make up its mind in the next 2 weeks we'd be in trouble.
I SOOOOOO don't want to give birth just yet tho I'd rather suffer a few more days.. tho if it gets any worse i guess better sooner

So what would happen if on friday night, you are sure it is all systems go, and at 10pm you have to call him and ask him to come home. Would he be able to manage that situation? If so, then maybe you could play it by ear until then. Tell him to give his employees a heads up now that you may be labouring then, (in which case change the cover to 39 and 40).

Does your silence on this mean that you went into labour on Wednesday? I hope everything is going well.

Lol you're nearly right there my little man was born Friday afternoon (09 Oct) and luckily the hubby did get that night off!
thanks for your help

PS actually can't trust the NHS "contractions have to be 4 mins apart and regular for an hour" - mine were 4-6 min apart and not very regular when i turned up at the hospital but i was already 8 cm dilated! Trust the midwives after that