"Real" labour or "practice" labour

[pinky27]

Hiya, Bit confused - am 38wks and have been having pains since 2am this morning ( feel like period pains and go round to my back) - they come about every 10 mins and last for about 30 secs. Is this the start of labour??? Or is it just a practice?? could it just be braxton Hicks? My partner took the day off work cos we thought it was all beginning but now think it was just a false alarm cos pains aren't getting any worse. Haven't had any other signs e.g water breaking or having a "show".

Is anyone else having the same?? Don't know what to do with myself!
Thanks
(confused)

OOOh how exciting. I had this with DD1 and DH took the day off as I was sure something was up. I read the 'false' labour section in my book about every 40 minutes.

We went for a nice long walk (it was Summer) and had a chilled out day. The period pain was still there at bed time but that was it. I took two paracetamol to help me sleep, which sounds daft but worked for me and my waters broke when I turned over in bed at 3am. From that point I had stonger pains at more regular intervals but wouldn't have gone in to hospital unless my waters had broken. When I got there I was 3-4 cm and they said I should stay. DD born at 11am.

Basically from my experience it could be starting, so if you can get a bit active, just going for a walk, you might get some of the slog out of the way before labour really kicks in.

Hope all goes well and take a towel to bed with you!

pinky i am in exactly the same position as you, except they are starting to get worse. i'm currently timing them on an internet application to see if there's a trend and whether i need to call the midwife, are you recording yours? I'll keep my eye on the thread to see how you're getting along :) Good Luck!!!!!!

How's it going ladies?

i am only 20 weeks pregnant with my second and i am having real bad pains...i had to have my waters broke and everything with my first so i never went into labour myself and it scares me a little cause i wont know when i am in labour lol i am really scared about going really early with this one and every pain freaks me out x