Brixton Hicks - But not just getting tightenings alone. Is that normal at 32wks?

[Bex174]

I had a bit of a weird thing happen during the night and really not sure if it is normal or not.

I'm 32wks with twins, never experienced Brixton hicks before to compare this to them. But essentially, other half and I shared a bit of nooky fun just before bedtime. Around an hour later, I started feeling really uncomfortable in my stomach, felt initially like both twins had stuck their bums out of my abdomen at the same time, that taut uncomfortable feeling. Realised that it was actually coming at approx every 6mins for around 30-60 seconds so started to think Braxton Hicks!

But then these tightenings got very uncomfortable indeed, so much so they verged on pretty painful and needed me to do my breathing exercises. Between these I had period like pain cramps across my whole belly and I felt so nauseous it was awful.

Got up and walked around, did some stretches on my birthing ball and after over an hour with this not getting worse tried lying down again. By that point it was 3am and I was so shattered I fell asleep. Woke up this morning with no after effects.

I've been reading about Braxton Hicks today to check that's what it was and on all the websites that say how to distinguish between them and essentially early labour, they say BH are just simple painless tightenings, early labour includes nausea, painful tightenings and period like cramps, all of which I got. So now I'm wondering what on earth that was all about last night?!!

Anyone else experience this?

I had this at 31 weeks with dS.
I was son the verge of going in to be checked as it started to feel like premature labour.

Like you it passed. However he was born at 37 weeks and he wasn't a twin so if I were you I might be tempted to get that bag packed!

On a serious note I thinks it's worth mentioning to the midwife.

OP, I'd urge you to get yourself checked out ASAP, especially with twins. I had similar at 29 weeks (singleton pregnancy), in similar circumstances. The pains passed, but when I got a routine scan a few days later, it turned out that the pains had been from my cervix funnelling. I gave birth later that week.

I'm not saying that this is the case for you and it may well be nothing at all, but I thought I'd share my story, as I think we sometimes tend to be a bit too "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure it's normal, it'll be fine" in pregnancy, and sometimes it isn't.

It's always better to be safe than sorry - please get yourself seen. I saw so many twins in the neonatal unit :(

BH can be very uncomfortable but if you also had period like cramps I think worth mentioning to midwife just in case your twins are considering an early appearance.

I had this at 32 weeks with my first - except they didn't go away. Exactly the same story, sex and then fairly quickly contractions that came every 20 minutes initially. I went into hospital at 2am. He was born at 32+3, after the hospital managed to halt things for long enough for me to have the steroids to help his lungs develop. He's fine now, but I would definitely go and get checked, they sound more like proper contractions than braxton hicks.

I'm get phases of BH too, and like you they are regular, and can be really somewhat painful. I know they are BH, coz they picked up on them when I went into the DAU for reduced movement, and they picked up my contractions. They did a fetal fibronectin test, which showed I wasn't having early labour pains, so I'm accepting that although most of the info out there says BH aren't normally regular, and aren't normally uncomfortable, mine clearly are! Typical. That being said, it's never bad to get yourself checked over. They'd much rather you went in and they said you had no problem, than you didn't go in when you needed too. Good luck :-)

Thanks guys for all the advice, much appreciated indeed.
I've booked in for a check up at 2pm today as like you all say, it's better safe than sorry. especially as I haven't quite got the nursery finished yet so I need these two to hold their horses for a little while longer!!
Thanks again :)