Pre-Labour Signs

[Nicola]

Did any of you new mummies have any indications that you were going into labour? Did everyone's waters break before they started having contractions? Did you "just know" something was different and happening or was it a case of normal life continued till the waters went type thing. Also did everyone get a show/plug type thing before their waters broke/labour started??

Sorry a zillion questions. I've 9 days to go, no show, no plug, still got my waters in tact....getting fed up and frustrated. LO is moving but his moves seem hard and awkward now....no other changes what so ever. What a waiting game and I'm the worlds most impatient person.

 

[trixipaws]

i had a mild dull heavy period-pain type feeling on the friday morning (i gave birth sunday afternoon) and i just knew things were starting to happen. but i was a bit closer to my EDD than u (millie arrived bang on her due date!)

 

[Nicola]

Wow! I didn't know she was born on her due date, that's the 2nd baby I know of this month to have done that....clever little bundle, only about 4-5% of babies manage that!! Well done Millie!! Ahh well we'll just keep waiting, I know he can't stay in there forever but still, come on LO Mummy wants to have a cuddle!!

 

[mayday]

I've 9 days to go, no show, no plug, still got my waters in tact....getting fed up and frustrated

Everyone hopes their baby will come early - if you try and spot every symptom now you will be disappointed if your baby doesn't come early and gutted if it comes late. Mine should have arrived 3 days ago, according to British medicine. However if I lived in France, today would be my due date, as we reckon pregnancy is 280 days and the French prefer to count 283. However in all reality anywhere between 37 weeks and 42 weeks is normal. It is frustrating, but the fact is babies arrive when they feel like it. If you get tense and stressed because you are playing the waiting game you will not be helping yourself. Rather than looking for every little symptom try to relax and get on with something useful that will take your mind of it (I have found painting my house to be very therapeutic I do the bits you can reach from a chair and shuffle the chair round the room, OH does the bits you need a ladder for.)

I can't speak for anyone else, obviously, but at 3 days overdue I have had mild period pains for around 10 days, a hindwater leak 4 weeks ago, but no show, no plug and no other signs of labour. I waited in all day on my due date for something to happen and it didn't so now I'm chilling and doing all the useful things I can and not stressing.

 

[Nicola]

Yeah I know, depending on country it's 37-42 as ready type thing I suppose what's getting me down isn't so much that LO isn't here yet but that I'm sat in an empty house, nothing to do (were moving out this week) and know in a day or two I'll miss the peace and lazy days but for the time being just constantly checking emails etc is driving me up the wall...thought I'd symptom spot instead. Perhaps I'll give up on that and think up something else to do instead. Why is daytime TV so crappy?!

 

[mayday]

You should give yourself a pat on the back to start with for being ready to move with 2 days to go - I am due to move on the 27th Aug and I know it is going to be manic . You could always come round here and learn about traditional building techniques and put it into practice - anyone who comes to visit and doesn't run away again quickly gets a shovel or a paintbrush or a scraper stuffed into their hands and is expected to work . If that doesn't sound appealing there's loads you could do; things I would do if I had the time include getting my digital photographs into albums and online for friends to look at, sorting out my training and competition schedule for next year (always complicated, soon to be even more complicated with the arrival of the baby), sorting out my garden (have you got cuttings of anything you want to take with you to the new house?), catching up with old friends, I haven't even had the time to go out to some of the antenatal class meetups they've organised, planning how you are going to decorate your new home (go online and hunt down decorating stuff at bargain prices - your OH will be wowed at your nestmaking skills. Mine is - shame he blows all the cash I save on stupid building mistakes I should have seen coming ).

There really is lots you can do, and before you know it the time will have passed and you'll be in the new house with a new baby. If you are really bored you can get my flying logbook up to date for me; I'm supposed to fill it in every time I fly anywhere yet somehow I don't seem to have made any entries in it since 2004 - whoops! It won't make too much difference until I want a command when someone will ask to see it.