Constant period type pain - early labour?

[pistachiopastry]

Hello all,

I'm about 40-41 weeks pregnant, and for the last few hours have been having almost constant period like pain at the bottom of my abdomen/uterus.
Occasionally it'll intensify for 20-30 seconds but otherwise it has stayed quite consistently painful for at least 5 hours now. A lot more painful than normal period cramp but not crazy intense like I imagine actual active labour contractions would be.

Could this be early labour? No other signs other than some loose bowel movements today as well. Not sure I'll be able to sleep with this pain though!

Yes, definitely sounds like labour to me. Exciting!

Sounds like it!

Good luck op, fingers crossed tomorrow your little one is here 😊

Yes definitely early labour. Start timing the intensified sensations to get a sense of how often!

Thanks all for the speedy replies!!
Don't want to get my hopes up but it would be great if it were the start of labour and baby does indeed come sometime in the next 24 hours!!

That's how my labour started both times, fingers crossed for you!!

Oooh yes, this is how mine started! If you can and it hasn't ramped up too much trying and get some sleep. That's what I did and glad I did head off to bed as obviously needed the energy! I woke up at 2am when my waters broke... Good luck OP, I hope you have little one with you soon xx

Good to know this is how some others labour started, really encouraging.
Yes you're right @Justanothermum9421 - not going to do me any favours staying up late if I can help it....!

So creepy- I opened mumsnet to start a post saying exactly this!!!

good luck OP, even if it isn't labour, I'm trying to remember that it's likely to still be baby getting ready to come! Eek! X

Yes definitely early labour!! Take a couple of paracetamol and try to get some sleep if you can. Then, when you wake up trying and get moving a little bit to help things along. Good luck OP xx

Definitely, with the loose bowels too! Fingers crossed something happens overnight

Yes! That sounds like all systems go!

@anonhop - what a coincidence!! How are you doing this morning?

I had contractions/more intense waves of pain every 6-7 minutes throughout the night so only managed a little sleep. Still in bed now so will see what it's like once I'm up and about... Hopefully the contractions will start to come closer together, as I did get my hopes up in the night that I'd be in hospital by now in active labour!

Glad to see your update. My first labour was 39 hours and I had PROM so they put me on the drip. Hopefully baby will be born today!

Yay fingers crossed. My early labour was like this too . Be patient. I had 10 hrs of mild/moderate contractions work no loss of mucus plug or waters breaking ( for me this all happened as I transitioned) but I did spend the day of early labour on loo!
Good luck amd keep taking paracetamol if you can

@pistachiopastry things have tapered down a bit for me this morning, but still there so not losing hope!

Best of luck for you today. How exciting!! You'll be fab. Keep us updated! X

@pistachiopastry Has baby pistachio arrived? Hope you're feeling okay and not too tired! You've got this mama!

Sorry to hear things have slowed @anonhop, they'll be here soon!

How are you progressing, OP?

Good luck with it!

Thanks for the messages all. No baby yet unfortunately!

I did progress to contractions every 4 minutes for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon but then it slowed down majorly again and they were more spaced out for the rest of the day... midwife said it could still take a while so I'm still at home.

Thankfully I have finally managed to get some sleep until now when I've just lost my mucous plug - hurrah! (although do know this doesn't mean anything is imminent but it's still encouraging....).

Pains are now quite constant with a lot of pressure so I am struggling to get back to sleep even though the pain level isn't intense... it's all so unknown and unpredictable!!

How are you doing op? Hope you’re snuggling baby as we speak!

Hi all, thanks again for all the messages and advice/support.
By way of update, and if it helps anyone in the future going through similar, I ended up being in strong latent labour for 7 night (contractions were intense and painful and regular at night, but not so much during the day). I even went into hospital twice on 2 nights as the contractions were so strong and consistently 3 in 10 minutes. However as soon as I got there they became less intense..... over the course of the week my cervix became paper thin but didn't go past 2cm.

It's been a tough ride but baby finally came last night, vaginal birth just with gas and air. I was 5cm when I arrived at the hospital and baby was here 4 hours later. Healthy and over 9 pounds!
Intense but worth it. Almost caved and had a C section after a week of strong latent labour but glad I held out and made the latent labour / all that pain worth it.

So hopefully this offers some insight to others who might go through similar. ❤️

Congrats OP and well done 🎉 Hope you are recovering well and enjoying snuggles!

I had a whole week of latent labor is was extremely exhausting! I also had another three children too look after too felt impossible at the time but managed it 🤣

My daughter was born at 37 weeks and 4 days I knew she was going to be early!

Congratulations! 🥳🥳🥳