....will it always be a gush or could it just be a leak that continues over time?
I went to the bathroom a little while ago and after I got up to go wash my hands, I felt a trickle (enough to catch my attention from what normal discharge would feel like) Looking in the mirror it soaked through my underwear and pants in a couple of spots. Nothing new has leaked in the past 20-30 minutes and what was wet on the pants is now dry.
I know this is probably a dumb question, but how to you know if it's normal discharge or water breakage? I go for my 37 wk appt. today. Should I ask him to check it?
Re: If your water breaks.....
I was just reading about this in Ina May's Breast-feeding Book! According to her, if you are standing up (and the baby is head down), you have little risk of gushing out because the baby's head acts like a plug and so you should just leak, maybe heavily.. but it shouldn't be as bad as if you were laying down. If you think it broke, I would guess you could lay down and see what happens!
Your doctor can do an easy test where they take a little bit of liquid and put it on a test strip, if the strip turns blue (I think..), it is amnio fluid. I had it done on Wednesday (it turned green.. no leaking here!) and other than the speculum, I didn't feel it at all.
Burned by the Bear
Mine trickled, but was accompanied by fierce labor cramps so I knew what was up.
It's good you already have an appt today, so you can check it out to keep your mind at ease.
DMoney will be a kickass big sister
I had this exact thing the other night, only it really soaked through my pants and dripped down my leg. Ended up going to L&D because I have a scheduled C-Section on 10/18 so if I go into labor my Dr says I need to go right in. They did all 3 tests on it and the Ph test came back positive for Amnio fluid and the other two came back negative. I've been consistantly having wetness down there since then, but I had an AFI Ultra Sound yesterday and my fluid level was on the low end of normal, but still normal... So I don't really know what the heck it was! I would definitely ask your Dr though! Good luck!
If nothing has happened in 30 minutes, I would say it wasnt your water breaking. Mine broke with Jack, but not is a gush. More of a trickle like urine (only I could tell where it was coming from) It continued like that for hours. I put a pad on after it happened and I soaked through at in about 5 minutes or so.
I would still bring it up at your appointment, everyone has a different experience!
If your water breaks it'll be a gush BUT you can get a tear in the bag of waters and it'll leak. I actually (embarrasingly enough!) went to L&D because my husband and I couldn't figure out what was going on - I had wet underwear all day no matter how many times I changed them. I was told to smell it (amniotic fluid will have no smell or a sweet smell) BUT if you're super hydrated it won't have a smell even if it's pee. I would definitely mention it to your doctor though and he can do a quick test to determine whether it's amniotic fluid or not.
7lbs 13oz 20 inches long
I noticed something similar to what you mentioned on Tuesday but it was intermittent and not very heavy so I wrote it off as watery discharge. It happened again on Wednesday. Since I had a DRs appointment that day, I waited and mentioned it at the appointment?
My Dr did the 3 tests as mentioned by PPs and all 3 came back positive. My leaks wer sporadic, and barely wet my pad. I could have easily missed it all together. Crazy enough, because she was head down and engaged, she was plugging it up a bit. I ended up being induced and delivered a healthy baby girl 12 hours later.
My recommendation is to call your DR and have it checked. Better safe than sorry.