I seemed to be in early labour - now its stopping.....help!

[babylove123]

Hi,
At midnight i started having contractions, we timed them and they were coming every 10 - 12 mins and were strong! About 1am i rang the labour ward to ask what to do - didnt know if i should be up and moving to try and encourage it or to go to sleep. They told me to try to sleep. At 2.30am, i got up and went downstairs, DP followed and we chatted, made a cup of tea etc and he helped me through them. Still coming at every 10 mins or so and last 75 seconds. At 5.30am i decided to go for a shower - big mistake it seems. Whether the warm water has done it i dont know but the contractions suddenly dropped off. Went down to every 20 mins, then every 30 and only lasting 40 seconds.......now they're prob only every 45 mins.

Have been for a walk this morning and had one on the way and 1 when i got back but now nothing again. Am miserable - i seriously thought something would be going on by now. I just dont know what to think now......

Any help......please!!!!

Didn't want this to remain unanswered.

My labour lasted for over 30 hours from the first contraction to the actual birth. The first 24 hours were spent at home and, like you, the contractions kept coming and going. At the start I was having strong ones every 10 minutes but they slowed down and at one point even stopped for 4 hours.

All I can say is don't panic and go with the flow. It may take a while but your little one will be here very soon!

And EAT loads if you can, I didn't and had to have a drip when I got to hospital.

ahh, its so tricky isn't it?

It will happen as it happens, and I can't say much more than that I'm afraid. But something is happening, and how immediate it is just waits to be seen. I had a while of on/off is this it early labour signs, and although it was a slow-burner, when it got going it was pretty easy (relatively speaking!).

What you need to do is rest and eat. Look after yourself, read a book, watch a film, sleep as much as you can. When you can no longer do these things because you can't concentrate or it hurts too much, that's when things are moving on.

Good luck, and keep us updated. We all love a birth thread here you know

if you are truly in labour, nothing you can do will stop it until the baby is born, so a shower or bath wont; stop the ctx if it is real labour

might be a practice run, but all those ctx will have been doing something good

don;t be disheartened, relax, chill, and potter around, your body will let you know when it is time

I have had 2 false labours with dc2 and dc3 - contractions etc for about 6 - 8 hours, get ready to go to hospital (even went in for dc2!) then stops and nothing! Then full labour did not kick in for nearly another week (7 days for dc2 and 4 days for dc3) - but when it finally did it went well and births were both smooth and fairly quick (6 hrs and 4 hrs).

This is your body getting ready for labour - know if this is your first time it could be v frustrating - but try to relax and nest and eat and drink well!

Good luck - hope all goes well.

Lulu is so wise.

know how you feel, been havin the same for a fortnight. had asweep yesterday and las night was the first night i slept undesturbed by contractions. going stir crazy