I'm 38+3 with baby #3. With my first 2 my waters broke before labour began so I never had to worry about timing contractions as I was already in hospital by that point. Previous babies delivered at 35+1 and 38+0 so this is also my longest pregnancy so far.
I was feeling quite uncomfortable yesterday, like frequent braxton hicks but something felt different about them. They started at the top.of my bump and were more crampy than regular braxton hicks which are generally just tight and a bit uncomfortable. They weren't very regular,aybe twice an hour or so, so I kept an eye on it and went about my day as normal.
Later at night it became more regular and uncomfortable so I download a timer app. Between 10.50pm and 3.40am they were coming every 7-8 mins on average and lasting around 30-50 seconds. I decided to try and get some sleep at that point. I was woken up by a 'contraction' around 5am but except from that managed to get a few hours sleep. Since I've woken up this morning I've had maybe 2 or 3 little ones but it seems like it's slowed down/stopped for now.
Could this be early labour? I know it can stop and start in the beginning. Am I right in thinking thr best way to get things going is to stay active? Honestly I just want to go back to my bed as I didn't sleep much last night and am always tired being heavily pregnant, but I guess the best thing to do is to stay active and see if it goes anywhere?