I'm 38+3 with my second. Last night at 1am we were absolutely thrilled and excited when I started getting contractions every 5-10 minutes, lasting 30-60 seconds, for two hours. Phoned the hospital and was advised to wait until they were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting 60 seconds, for one hour.
But by 4.30am, contractions stopped completely. Over the day yesterday, I had four mild contractions. Four! That's all! I went for two longish walks (as long as I could manage) and spent the day doing some exercises and on the birthing ball. Nothing.
I never had the latent stage with my first. My waters broke, no labour, and I had to be induced 24 hours later. The pessary worked immediately and within 20 minutes I'd skipped the latent stage and was in active labour.
So, is this it? How long will this go on for? What were your experiences in the latent stage, how did you get through the agonising wait? I'm sitting here in bed devastated that I'm not in intense pain right now. Sounds ridiculous. But I was so excited last night! We'd called the in-laws over at 3am ready to look after DD as well!
Any advice for either speeding things up or for just getting through this unbearable stage would be really helpful, thank you!