Contractions but no pattern

[Mummyzoy]

Hi,
First time posting on here... I'm 38 + 2 and for past couple of days having more cramps than ever. Last night was up a lot in the night with them and all morning / early afternoon was very much the same. On occasions I am having a lot of tightening - this isn't painful. But the cramps are.
I went to hospital for monitoring, where they agreed the crampings do appear to be pre-labour, but couldn't confirm, said that maybe body isn't sure if it wants to go into labour or not...
This evening the cramps have settled down a lot.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a sign of very, very soon labour... or just a bad case of Braxton Hicks?
TIA

Sounds like prodromal labour.
I had this for a week before baby came, I had cramping and tightening on a nightly basis, lasting for several hours, getting to about 10 minutes apart, but every time I went to bed thinking "is this it?" they'd be gone by morning.

I had to be induced because baby was 2 weeks overdue, but when they did the induction they examined me and saw my cervix was dilated to 2 CM, so the cramps you're experiencing are doing something.

Just rest. Get lots of sleep. You'll need it when baby comes.
And apparently the prodromal labour can go on for 1-2 weeks before labour starts for real. They can be your body trying to get the baby into the right position, lots of women who have this have a baby who's posterior or breech. There's exercises you can do to encourage baby to turn.

Thanks PRoselegend.
It's so frustrating. Baby is head down and engaged in the right position though. But nice to have someone who has experienced something similar as I can't find anyone who has!

I had period type cramps for a few hours on random days, sometimes they would happen at the same sort of time each day for a while then nothing. But this was about two weeks before the big day and I could definitely tell the difference.
And the exercises to turn baby I think are bs 😂 I tried every trick in the book and have heard from lots of others too. I think baby either wants to turn on their own or not nothing you can do except physically turn them!
Fingers crossed for you!

In my case the baby had his hand and elbow up by his head, which is why the prodromal labour.

I tried everything to get labor to start.. Sex, pineapples, daily walks, raspberry leaf tea, etc.

Nothing worked. Babies come when they want to.
And you will be able to tell the difference once real labor starts. Early labor does feel similar to prodromal labour, but eventually they get more regular and a pattern emerges. That's the key, when they don't go away after a few hours.

But I'd definitely have your hospital bag packed and birthing partner on standby, ready to go.

Ah I had this too. Unfortunately my contractions never actually got regular even during established labour...

Certainly make sure you are 100& packed and at the ready as it really could all kick off for you at any time. Also do not worry about keep popping in to be monitored at Triage if you feel like you need to, MWs see this all the time.

I have had exactly the same for the past 2 weeks. I even started to lose my mucus plug and I was so hopeful that labour was starting but so far still no baby, I am 37+4. It gets so frustrating.