False labor

[Anonymous]

I am almost 39 weeks (2nd pregnancy) and have been dealing with this for a week. I start having regular contractions for anywhere from 4-12 hours, they start getting closer together and then just completely disappear. My nurse practitioner says this is fairly common with 2nd or 3rd babies. I resist the urge to believe that I am in labor, but start to get a little excited after 6 or 7 hours of contractions. It is so disappointing when they go away. I have had the rest of the pre-labor symptoms all week.

Has this happened to anyone else? How long did it happen before you went into real labor?

[Anonymous]

Oh how I feel for you! I had a lot of false labor with babies 2 and 3. I think I went in to get checked at least twice with both - and was sent home feeling frustrated. My second was two weeks late-and I had false labor for most of those two weeks. It sucked! But when labor finally kicked in, it was fast and furious and only about 3 hours start to finish. My third was only a couple of days late, but I had false labor for at least a week prior. Her birth was a bit slower, 9 hours, but she was bigger, and I did hypnobirthing which slowed things down (in a good way).

So hang in there, one of these times it will be for "real". In the meantime, the advice my midwife gave me was walk, have sex, and try to relax. No one is pregant forever!