How many days of prelabor did you have?

[~Cricket~]

I think technically anything before 4cm is considered pre-labour. It's not false labour, but it can stop and start. The contractions are real, and the pain is real, but you're not considered to be in "active" labour until 4cm, generally.

[erkelly]

I guess technically a week. My son was born on a Saturday. The previous Sunday I felt like I had a sharp feeling of having to pee constantly, even though I didn't. On Wednesday at my 40 week appt, I measured 1 cm. so it's likely that night I dilated a little. The next day, my due date, I had some belly pains and wasn't sure what they were. They told me to go to the hospital. They checked me and apparently I was having contractions 3-5 minutes apart. Who knew my body could handle those so well! I was still 1 cm so they sent me home. I had some belly pains the next day, only a couple contractions made me stop what I was doing though. Saturday morning I woke up (I was able to almost completely sleep through the night) and my water broke. DH insisted it was time to go to the hospital. After our 1 1/2 hour drive there, I measured 7 cm upon arrival, and DS came about 45 minutes later! Man, when things get moving, they can go fast!

This time around I live 30-45 minutes from the hospital. If I wait til my water breaks again, it's likely I'll have my baby in the car, so I have to somehow figure out an earlier time to leave and make it there on time, but not too early to where I'm there all day!

[dogmom327]

3 weeks, every night for 3-6 hours with DD.

[247mom]

I have a very "irritable" uterus, with my last baby I had weeks of prelabor and one night of intense labor that stalled at 4 cms and she wasn't born for 6 more days! If I had had a hosp. birth I am sure they would not have "allowed" my labor to stall (and we are talking HARD labor, too). But that is what happened and she was born healthy after another 5 hrs of labor the day she was born. I had one hard labor episode this time but it stopped, that was a week ago and then some more prelabor over the weekend. From trying to check my own cvx, I think I am dilated to a 3-4. But I am trying to not stress over this, since apparently this is what my body does. My first was induced, but I did have a lot of prelabor with her, too. (I agree that prelabor is better than "false" labor, because it shows it is actually purposeful and not just in your head!!)

[psylion]

Originally Posted by crunch!910 What do you consider "pre-labor"? I went into labor Monday at 4am labored until noon on Thursday. I labored at home until Wednesday about 8pm before going to hospital where I was admitted at 2cm, progressed to 3cm by midnight, but by noon the next day was stuck at 5cm so that's when a csection was needed. It was real labor, not just false labor. The contractions were very, very painful, and I was having pain inbetween contractions too. Even nubain that Wednesday night hardly took the edge off. My body was truly in real labor, but just wouldn't dilate.

I was kind of similar two you. My water broke at 8pm and the contractions started within half an hour. They were very painful and about 2 minutes apart. When I went in about 7 am the next morning I was only dilated to 2, I couldn't believe it. If my water hadn't broken they would have ant me home I wasn't 4 in about an hour and 6 in another hour. I never dilated past 6 cm. They did the cesarian about 6 pm after I spiked a high fever. She was really jammed in there in a strange way and they even had some trouble pulling her out during the cesarian.

[MacMama]

With my third I had about 2 weeks of it-- I remember it vividly because it was so miserable. It was every-5-minute contractions for hours at a time, day and night, and I wasn't sleeping so my midwife agreed to strip my membranes at 38wks (she normally doesn't, but I was dilated to a 2 and begging her to do something), then again 3 days later at 38.5 weeks. At that second appt. I was already dilated to a 4. She stripped me again, and told me if I wanted to try the castor oil and orange juice cocktail we'd probably have a baby that night. I took it at 2 and 4pm, DS was born at 5:30.

I was all for waiting until the baby was ready, but I had no idea a person could feel so awful and not be in "real" labor for so long. I also don't really think any of those minor interventions do any good unless your body is about to go into labor anyway. Anyway, I feel your pain-- and I hope it's over for you soon and you're holding your precious baby!

[HaleysMommy]

Two days, 8am-3pm then nothing for 36 hours. After the first active labor ctx dd2 was born in 75 min.

[HeatherlovesCDs]

A couple of months...... Yes, I'm sort of serious, but definitely for a month. Here is the story.

With my second set of twins, I started getting BH's around 16-18wks. I can't remember exactly. By 28wks, they were very strong and very frequent. I couldn't go by the standard of calling if you have more than 6 in an hour or if you have to breath through them because I would have been off to L&D several times a day. At 32wks, it went into real labor. I got to the hospital and I was 3cms dilated. They were able to stop it with magnesium sulfate. However, I continued contracting very frequently. It was typically every 10 minutes often more, but not very often less. They were strong and would double me over and often need me to breath through them. Sometimes they would calm a little at night and I could sleep through them, sometimes not. Either way, they woke me often. At 33wks, I was 4cms. At 34wks, I was 5cms. At that point, I was put on hospital bedrest for a week. The nurses could not believe how much I was contracting and how strong they were and that I wasn't actually in labor. They put me in a room that double as an anitpartum and an L&D room because we just knew I'd deliver. At 35wks, I was sent home (considered safe to deliver twins). We all assumed I'd be back very quickly to deliver. At 36wks, we broke my water to get me really moving and the babies were born 5hrs later. I *think* I may have actually been in real labor that morning anyway, but honestly, there is just no way to know for sure since I'd been through it so many times. What I do know is all it took was breaking my water to get me to actually deliver. (If it was only the contractions, I would not have let them break my water. I was also having major pre-e symptoms and started spilling protein that morning.)

That was really no fun and I hope I don't go through that again.

[msmamabear]

4 days, then an additional 12 hours of intense active labor with my last one.

[SaraElise]

With my second and third, I had regular close together contractions starting at about 20 weeks (I had them before that too, only not as regular). But they would only last about an hour, and then stop for a while. But it definitely happened daily, several times a day.

With my third I had to go in to have contractions stopped at 31 weeks because they went on for over 3 hours at >5 minutes apart. I wasn't dilating, but we didn't want it to get to the point where I was that early.

With my first 2 I went into *real* labor and babies were born less than 24 hours after being checked at 4cm. With my third, I was 4cm, and contracted lightly, but regularly for about 3 days, then had more intense labor with more dilation for 17 hours.