Am I stopping my labour?

[Peanutbutterislife]

Hello! Hoping someone will have some experience or guidance for me - nothing really matches this on Google!

I have been in stop start early labour for 3ish days, I have had 1-2 hrs of contractions 3:30-5am last night and two nights ago. As well as nausea diarrhoea feeling “odd” etc. I’m starting to wonder if my excitement/anxiety is preventing it from developing? Sometimes when the contractions come I get a wave of excitement adrenaline and a million thoughts in my mind from “is this it” to “I need to pack my son’s lunchbox before hospital” !!!! My first baby was a great fast labour so this is new territory.

im getting so exhausted and worried it’s me - I know stress can delay labour. Tried breathing/reading/tea/tele and I still get the rushes of anxiety and then by 6am it’s all died off.

heeeelp! I don’t want a medical induction as I know my body has and can do this….

tha js so much x

This happened to me and it was down to the position baby was in. However one thing that did get things happening was a warm bath. That got things going enough to be admitted to labour ward and then eventually my waters being broken actually got baby out! Good luck

Forgot to add, surely everyone feels nervous and excited and doesn't have a stop start labour so it's not you or something you're doing!

This was my second labour. It took five days of this and all of a sudden on the fifth day I just somehow knew this was it and it all happened within 90 mins. Your body is doing a great job and all this prep means progression, just on your own timeline. Do your hypnobirthing, watch comedies and eat well etc and it'll happen soon. I'm so thankful my antenatal teacher was encouraging me every day that I was in labour and I just needed to trust my body's timescales. It took about 30 hours after my waters broke to all happen naturally.

Sounds like things are really progressing well, all of this early prep is setting up your body for actual labour :)

In between your resting, I would add in some short walks (even around the house!), and some low squats if you can do that comfortably.

My first labour was fast (5 hours from nothing to baby, too fast really!)

My second labour I consciously tried to slow down a little, it was more like 8/9 hours (transition and delivery was just as quick as the first time, just slower in the early stages)

I could have written this! I'm overdue and this morning from 3am til 6ish was having pretty regular contractions. Now nothing. It's very frustrating. Had this on and off since Saturday

From what I understand Braxton Hicks are much more common in subsequent pregnancies than first pregnancies. Sounds like your body is just getting ready. With my first, I tried to just go to sleep / rest when contractions started as I knew it could be a long haul, so I'd suggest trying to just go back to bed and only get up and start doing things if its progressing and you're needing to move around to get comfortable

Thank you all so so much for your replies, they were incredibly helpful and made me feel like I was not alone.
just FYI the very next day I went into labour and it certainly wasn’t me doing anything differently - the body knows when it is ready I suppose! It was a great positive birth experience and clearly my worries weren’t so powerful they caused any issues or problems during my labour and birth. :)

Congratulations! Hope you're recovering OK. Enjoy the snuggles!