pre-labour pains: how far in advance did they start?

[bakedpotato]

i'm due in 16 days. for the last 3 days i've been having longish bursts of what MW calls pre-labour pains: 3 hrs in the middle of the night, 5 hours yesterday afternoon. they basically feel like pretty bad abdominal stomach cramps/period pains. I never had this with my first child so wasn't expecting it. am doing the rest/paracetamol thing when they hit.
[I am hoping they may have something to do with baby (which was posterior) swivelling around and down into pelvis, as very suddenly i'm no longer suffering so badly from aching hips/heartburn.]
so wanted to ask those who had pre-labour like this how much longer they had to wait?

SM, a bit mean to say this, but it is a comfort to know you're in the dumps too, so there's clearly a hormonal element to this. i feel so low, i am boring myself (to tears). DD stumped upstairs and got me a tissue this morning and gave me unsolicited kisses and little pats. feel bad weeping in front of her but heck, what can you do. it's all so uncomfortable and joyless at the moment. AND we know what is to come!

gloom compounded by crappy child's health supplement in today's guardian, suggesting you should have started prepping your body with fruit/veg/loads of cardiovascular exercise in your teens in order to conceive/carry/nourish a healthy baby -- and then added, inevitably, that it's best to avoid stress throughout your pregnancy (right). yet again i will have to stop buying the guardian on saturday. it's such a misery merchant.

once more unto the reflexologist...

Good evening BP!
Sounds awful but it does make you feel better and more 'normal'(!) when you know someone else is having a similar (hard) time of it!!

Do you know what you're having? I don't but I'm so completely different this time round - hormonal, emotional, different aches and pains etc etc I wonder if I'm having a girl. I won't be disappointed at all if its a boy but I do wonder why this pg has been such a rollercoaster.

Aaaaah your DD sounds like a little angel! I've cried a fair bit in front of DS, as you say absolutely nothing you can do to stop it once the floodgates open!! Thankfully DS doesn't seem to notice.

Boo hiss to the Guardian - I strongly recommend you use it for cleaning windows (when your nesting urges click in that is!!) The avoid stress during pg line made me chuckle. These researches just do not live in the real world. A bit like the physio I saw for my SPD who told me not to get on the floor to play with DS and not to carry anything heavier than a book. Yeah right! Does she thing the washing will magic itself down to the washing machine and back up again? Or that DS will fly into his highchair like superman?!?!?

I have to confess I don't watch the news anymore for the same reason I don't read heavy weight newspapers anymore - I just can't take all the bad news and dire predictions that make up 'news' these days. Mind you I find myself boo hooing at adverts these days(eg the carphone warehouse one with the unloved phones!) so you can imagine what real news could do to me!!!

The reflexologist sounds like a great plan - go for it - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I've had a curry followed by 1/2 pineapple for tea . Unfortunately DH is too bunged up with cold to go for the sex idea but I've still got the raspberry leaf tea and caster oil if I'm really desperate! I have to confess to defrosting the freezer this afternoon - hmmm - maybe a teensy weensy bit of nesting tho the door wouldn't shut as it was so iced up so it was more necessity than anything!!

Oh dear - just noticed how long this is!! You've prob dropped asleep by now (or given birth!!!!). Going now!!

SM, I knew it! You've been at the freezer. Definately a sign of impending something.
BP, pants to the Guardian - I'm sure Einstein's mother wasn't juicing and realigning her chakras during pregnancy and he got his three score years and ten.

ooh, guess what i did just before logging on and seeing both of your messages? I cleaned a window... with the Guardian! that's it, nesting over.

no, i don't know what i'm having, SM, but can't remember how i felt last time. don't think i was so low/knacked, though much of this is compounded by week of broken nights thanks to DD's cold (last night much better)

bubble, nice point re einstein's mother. i agree, the thing is not to read papers. they're full of nonsense

i had a curry too last night. my first words this morning to DH: 'Must buy pineapple'.

Oh dear Bubble - hope it really isn't impending ... well at least not until Wednesday coz DH is still laid low with cold - he spent most of today in bed - so don't think he'd be the support I'll need in labour at the mo...and the cars booked in for a repair to the bumper on Tuesday coz some silly woman ran into the back of it on Thur. So Wednesday would be ok!!

BP top marks for putting the Guardian to good use!!!

Well first thing to happen this morning was a txt msg from my friend to say she had an 8lb 14oz girl at 10.30 last night!! She was due to be induced tomorrow at 10 days over so how lucky is that!! Her secret ..... pineapple!!!

BP, SM - just checking in for an update, any news?

Wotcha!!
Well, went to see the midwife today and.....all exactly same as 2 weeks ago!! Baby not engaged tho lying fairly low so my next aptmt is in 2 weeks - at 41 weeks and a day for a 'sweep'. Oh dear. Not had one of them before - another new experience. Other than that not much to report.
SPD still playing up.
Heartburn still wicked.
Bump still big.

Been to the supermarket and bought a couple of pineapples for after tea.

no news. just back from wholly unneccessary growth scan (MW measured me last week and said fundal height was same as a few weeks ago, probably to do with head engaging, but would i like a growth scan? uh, well, not really, something else to worry about, but now you put it like that). all looks fine, f/h thing must be to do with head engaging, guestimate is that it will be around 7lbs -- as DD was. if it ever comes out, that is.

i'm not due till sunday, but DD was 5 days early which is why i've got it into my head that it might be chocks away at any time.

i've got a bit picky about pineapple. gone off the co-op sort, not lush and juicy enough. DH has said he will do a waitrose run tonight to get one of their supersweets. yessss.

i think the real issue here is that i haven't actually committed to booking a haircut. psychologically, i am clearly not ready at all.

SM?

posts crossed...

Lol re haircut BP!

I've also not actually booked in for one purely coz the thought of leaning backwards to have hair washed is horrifying in the extreme. (images of falling off the chair, throwing up due to severe heartburn etc etc) Thats if that action is actually physically possible which I seriously doubt!!

I'm also due Sunday but really don't feel that anything is going to happen by then. Having said that, to book an antenatal aptmt for 7th Feb(!!!!) was a bit soul destroying - the thought of still being pg in 2 weeks time....

Your DH sounds like a gem BP!! Mine would be if he would just shake off this stupid cold!

Come on SM, what's worse, severe heartburn/falling-off-chair-related embarrassment, or still being here in 20 days?
Right: it's booked. tomorrow at 11.30.

BP, if it's any consolation I had me hair cut a couple of weeks before DS was due. Came out of there seriously depressed after she told me DS would definately be a couple of weeks late, I wasn't big enough. I was dying to go back in there on our first trip out, DS was born 4 days after my appointment! So a haircut is definately a way forward!

flossam

Haircut'll do it IME. I didn't even get time to dye mine before my waters broke.

oh no, i'm getting hopeful again.

well, what with haircut AND fourth reflexology session AND lashings of waitrose pineapple, if it doesn't happen tomorrow i'm giving up.

Giving up is good as well. The Not Thinking About It/Despair approach that also is the only way to start one's period if it's overdue, I find.

Haircut is a very good tip! Hope you don't mind me butting in, last time had hair done on a Wed and had ds on Friday night!

Am now 35 weeks and am deliberating whether to get haircut this week!

when are you / was you due baked potoatoe

Girly, hang on for two weeks otherwise you'll be technically prem, and that would be a nuisance.

Motherinferior! Hi! Have you seen my hair? It is shockingly in need of a good cut Sorry have not been in touch, been quite poorly with this pregnancy but am on the mend now! One MAJOR advantage is that I got out of going to the New Years Eve Anglo Indian Dance

Oooh Girly Anglo Indian dance sounds like fun!!

After reading all your tales about the positive effects of haircutting I'm gonna take the plunge and go this afternoon!! Hurrah. So the next you hear from me might be on the birth announcements boards!!

i'm not going to make my 11.30 appt at toni and guy, but i'm some way off the birth announcements -- i'm stuck in the badlands in between.

i've been since 2am with contractions which were quite serious for about 2 hrs. but, awfully, they petered out as soon as we contacted the midwife at 6am. since then i've been trying to sleep but just as i'm about to drift off, bam, i get hammered with another one out of the blue. however at a rate of about 4 big contractions in 2 hrs, plus a random scattering of tiddlers, i'm not going anywhere fast.

feeling pretty grotty as this is already nearly as long as my first labour and i'm clearly only in the foothills. baby's back is to my right side which must have something to do with it. if i lean forward, i can get the heavier contractions going, but i'm not feeling very up for it right now no energy

send me vibes

Have been lurking on this thread - also 35 weeks pregnant so not planning on any action myself yet - but lots of sympathy I remember the waiting game so well from last time!

BakedP - it will happen - sleep is such a good idea if you can manage it - last time I did 48 hours of contractions every 5-20 minutes, and like you say, just as you're trying to nod off along comes another whopper which forces you to leap out of bed. What a pain. But I reckon it won't be too long before your in the Announcments section!

Am also contemplating the haircut strategy - but have such a shaggy mop at the moment I can't believe I can put it off another 5 weeks.

to you bp, xxxxx

BP, babe, best of luck. A hot water bottle in the back helps, honestly it does. DD2's back was doing that in my second labour.

Girly, I am so going to grill you on AIs at some point...