What Does Pre-Labor Feel Like?
January 18th, 2011
Ladies, the days leading up to when you went into labor, how did you feel? Were there any signs—big or small? I never went into labor with Em. I was induced due to high blood pressure. So, I am not really super sure what pre-labor (is there such a thing?) feels like. I have a pretty good idea what full-on contractions feel like, but not much more than that. And I’m curious.
Throw me an educational bone or two?
Tags: pregnancy
23 Comments on “What Does Pre-Labor Feel Like?”
not sure either…
all i can tell you is if you think you have to fart first thing in the morning, don’t roll over and try to fart on hubs… because the “fart” may be your water breaking:) that was my first hint it was time.
good luck and enjoy the last few moments as a family of 3:)
Umm, how do I say this delicately…your vagina might show changes. Mucas plug falls out or there might be more mucas type stuff, slight spotting. I also felt like the baby was practically scraping my cervix because he was so low. Pressure. You might be pooping a lot, very crampy or achey. All 3 times, I felt like I would normally feel if I were about to start my period. Yeah, this wasn’t helpful at all. Ha.
Sara’s got it, you get a ton of icky egg whitey gunk oozing out, kinda like when you ovulate but x 20, about a week before. When I was dilating (in early 1-4 centimetres dilation) I had a ton of blood ( which is normal but still freaked me out ) Only something like 15% of women have their water breaking as a first sign of labor. Period like cramps that get more intense and closer together :) You will know :)
Y’all rule. Sara: you ARE helping. I forgot all about the mucous plug, for example!
Thanks, ladies. Keep ‘em coming!
The only hint I had, until my water broke or the onset of major contractions, was the loss of my mucus plug the day before. With son #1 I lost my plug, and the following evening my water broke & away we went. With son #2 the m.p. was again lost, and the following morning I started having major contractions and was in full labor. (I had also been 4 cm/80% for a week).
But as the others said – when it’s finally happening for real you will know!
i wish i had the mucous plug help, my outer OS (outer part of my cervix) was open through out the pregnancy with both, so i lost and reproduced plug all along… you might not feel anything, and you might feel a lot:)
i remember being really tired, but restless… like i had a million things that needed doing, so i was gonna get them done.
oh and i had the calf cramps like i get before my period the night before my water broke the day of.
all the signs i had with Vi, i was induced with Grey, so i didn’t know what to watch for either. it was fun and annoying thinking, “oh, is this it?” but once it started it was really neat to see and feel your body doing it on it’s own.
i’m getting all excited for you now:)
My daughter was born at 6am on Tuesday morning and I felt NOTHING until 1pm on Monday afternoon. (On the previous Friday, I was told that my cervix was stubbornly staying closed, etc.) My labour was pretty typical/regular all through Monday and things didn’t get intense enough for me to want to get to the hospital until about 1am. Things were… hard for next few hours, but nothing unmanageable.
(I’m so excited for you!!)
For my first I felt nothing at all and had not one sign and was finally induced after being a week late. For my second I had “false labor” constractions for 2 weeks or so (big cramps plus loose stools), had fully descended and was about 3cm. The day before I went into labor I had spotting, and that night the cramping was the same it just started becoming more frequent and regular. I was excited to actually get to go into real labor that time!
I had flu-like symptoms for several days before actually going into labour – I had heard of this but after 4-5 days with no signs of labour I thought I had definitely caught something instead. Throwing up, nausea, stomach upset & muscle aches… then I felt better for about 3 hours then woke up with minor cramping which led to ‘real’ labour a few hours later.
Jesse: I forgot about the flu-like symptoms as well. Good to know. Good to know.
With my second I had braxton hicks about two weeks, off and on, in advance of labor. The braxton hicks became more frequent and “painful” as I got closer to labor. It felt crampy instead of pinchy. They never lasted long.
Before going into labor the baby dropped a lot. With both children I craved a lot of sweets and fatty foods often before labor. I also felt restless and more tired than usual. Labor began with contractions that felt like a “pinch”/precise targeted “pain” in my lower pelvis (around where I assume my cervix is). With my second it radiated into my back as an achey feeling. The contractions where there when I was laying down or upright. They would come more often and stronger if I was up and moving and where strongest if I sat on the toilet! I could feel each build, peak and then recede. Imagine a roller coaster ride.
Once I am in labor I have a lot of energy. I have to keep moving. I can’t stand to be still through the contractions.
My contractions were never consistent, time wise, and some hurt more than others with both my babies. But overall they increased in the severity of the “pain” and I write “pain” because it didn’t really hurt until I was 8cm dilated–about 1 hours before my second child was delivered. The bad pain began much earlier with my first child though.
I think in my gut I always knew I was in labor and when the “shit was about to hit the fan”. But I always am unsure. Is it? Is it really? Is it just wishful thinking? I should listen to my instincts and so should you. :)
I don’t remember having any advance warning that I was going into labor, although I did tell my work that I was not coming back the next week because I just didn’t want to be there any more, and then I went into labor early Sunday morning. So maybe I DID know, subconsciously. Ha.
With my second son, I had BH contractions for 2 weeks ahead of labor, mucus plug fell out over a week ahead – I was so impatient after that! Everything I read said that you don’t feel like eating once you’re about 24 hours out, but it was the opposite for me – the evening and morning before I went into labor (at noon) I was STARVING. I just kept eating, it was weird. So I’d say any big change from normal will probably mean you’ve got less than a week left.
Also, in my non-scientific poll of family and friends, the faster your labor goes the more intense/painful it is. Both my boys were born within 8 hours of the first “real” contraction, and the pain I describe sounds a lot worse than the pain my sister-in-law talks about when she labored for 3 days before her son was born. I was dilated at least 2 cm for the last month, too, so it’s not just that she had a headstart and I didn’t. It holds true for my friend (looong labors that hurt, but didn’t make her want to die) and my sister (less than 4 hours for all 3 of her kids, said an unanesthetized c-section would have been less painful).
I had braxton hicks contractions more frequently during the last couple weeks. I was at 2 cm for most of the last month and 5cm the day before. I also started waddling really bad the week before because the head was sitting so low in my pelvis. The last few days before I went into labor I was just flat exhausted from the moment I heaved myself out of bed in the morning. My legs started swelling quite a bit which was new for my pregnancy. Of course, the exhaustion and swelling could in part be attributed to the heatwave we were having and that I was still working full days. I think my body was telling me to slow on down. I lost my mucas plug in small globs with only the tiniest bit of pink streaking over the two days before. The night before I went into labor I was an emotional wreck, and was on the phone sobbing to my mom about how worn out and uncomfortable I was, and how I just couldn’t put on a “happy to be pregnant face” any longer at work. Luckily my water broke that night! I had a fast labor with my water breaking at 2am and my son being born at 7am. I disagree with Jess’s comment above about fast labor hurting a lot, mine was intense but the pain wasn’t that bad and really I didn’t have much time to think about it. I just focused on each contraction as it came and shut out most everything else.
With mine, I had a couple of days of just momentary tightness around the baby. Enough to make you gasp, but not painful.
V was breech until a couple of days before he was born, I let out a HUGE belch in the docs office and could feel him turn, I was so embarrassed. M was in launch & load position from day 1, so I was very uncomfortable with her from the beginning.
I never had any stomach issues, I had Mexican food pretty exclusively with both of them.
I only had hard labor with my son, I didn’t have any beginning labor at all. I had my first contraction @ 6am, and he was born @ 10am. I could barely breathe, the labor was awful.
With my daughter, labor started at 6am (again!) and labor progressed normally, I did not go straight into hard labor. She wasn’t born until 2pm (which is still relatively short.
After my first, I wasn’t sure I could go thru labor again. If my second had been my first – I wouldn’t have had any qualms whatsoever.
So – there is no planning for this stage.
With my first I felt weird most of the day, dizzy and like I wasn’t there. With #2 also felt strange on and off for about 2 weeks, made a few false trips to L&D the day I had her I started feeling tiny cramps and had a little bleeding and then they came full force. This time around I am 35 weeks and starting to get those odd feelings like she’s coming soon. More Braxton Hicks, some cramping and really super duper tired and nauseous.
With my second I felt like the baby’s head was so low. I felt pinching and discomfort a lot. And I was so grumpy. My doctor told me I could take tylenol and use a heat pad for the pain and discomfort. The morning I started labor I just felt really tired and rundown. I was resting on the couch and started feeling cramps – kind of like a period. But then I noticed that they were coming and going. Then they started to get closer. I went to the bathroom and saw some spotting. But my contractions were not very painful. They started at 9 am and were about 5-10 minutes apart by 11 am. But I could talk through them and got a shower and got all ready to go to the hospital. I got to the hospital a little after 1:30, and when the doctor checked me I was already 7 cm dilated. My son was born at 7:45 that evening.
Diarrhea. Stomach issues
I was 35 weeks so didn’t connect it w (pre term) labor. My water broke while interviewing a pediatrician. Classic. She arrived 5 hours later!
I had a weird sort of feeling on a Sunday night that I was going to have Adeline on Tuesday. So I gave my husband a list of things to do and asked him to get them done Monday, because I was having a baby Tuesday. Monday evening I went to work as a nursing assistant (it was a particularly brutal shift) and at about 9:30 I got really hot, started sweating through my scrubs, and felt like I was going to pass out. One nurse told me that was how she felt a few hours before she went into labor. I got home a little after midnight, and a few minutes after I walked in the door, my water broke (barely a trickle, not like in movies). I didn’t have any contractions, those didn’t actually start until 6:00 AM on Tuesday when they started Pitocin. I think the mucous plug came out during labor. I had Braxton Hicks starting at 5 months, so I never paid attention to those at the end.
So to answer your question, the only sign I had was feeling hot, sweaty, and like I was going to pass out a few hours before my water broke.
Oh, and yes, Adeline was born on Tuesday, like I thought she would be. :)
Just saw your Twitter post about being only 1.5 cm. I went from 1cm to 10cm in about 7 hours, not drug induced. So there’s hope! There’s always hope! Besides, you didn’t want a baby born on Groundhog’s Day, right? February 3 sounds like an awesome idea to me. :-) Best of luck to you all!
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