Early contractions - help?
Hi ladies,
This is my first pregnancy and call me naive but I went into the ER last night after have strong contractions (first up my spine, then to my abdomen) for about 2 hours straight. I timed them and once they were around 5 minutes apart and I was to a point of barely being able to breathe through them - DH and I decided to go to the hospital.
I've spent many sleepless nights the past few weeks experiencing a similar tightening of my stomach and pain in my lower back - but they lacked the consistency and strength of the pains I was feeling yesterday.
After about an hour of waiting at the hospital, they got me into a room and started monitoring me. At that point, I felt like an idiot because what I thought were contractions had completely died down to nothing.
They continued to monitor me for about an hour, I was showing mild - moderate contractions with no dilation and no consistency so I was sent home.
The continuous cramping in my lower back and abdomen has been persisting all day long today. I am so tired of this and just wish that labor would start or that my water would break so I could at least be assured that labor would come soon.
I have 2 weeks until my due date. Is what I'm experiencing pretty standard? Or is it a sign that she could come soon? I just wish my mind could rest and stop playing this guessing game!
Re: Early contractions - help?
It's comforting to hear that I'm not alone !
Thank you both for the good wishes, I'm really anxious and it's just nice to come to a place where there are others who can relate. I've got a warm washcloth now on my stomach which is helping a little. My bath tub isn't quite the most comfortable, especially for a pregnant lady, otherwise I would love to just chill in the bath tub for awhile while my body is preparing itself.
That happened with my first pregnancy when I was about 4 days shy of my EDD. I went in at about 1am to L&D and by 8am the contractions had stalled out to about every 15 minutes. They sent me home. The next night I lost my MP, two days after that I went into labor.
I would say the only difference for me between the false labor and the real deal was although the false was painful, it wasn't quite as painful as when I was in full blown labor. I ended up having back labor too.