38 weeks, wonder when I'll go?

[Anonymous]

I know this has been a topic before but I'd like to get some feedback from the current DCUM community. When you went into labor with your first, did you have lots of false labor first? Did you lose your mucous plug days (or weeks) before you gave birth? Did you feel nauseated? Kind of weird? Did you have any biological or mental feelings that suggested to you that you were going to be in labor? Did the intensity of your Braxton Hicks contractions change? I'm only 38 weeks but I have been having Braxton Hicks constractions constantly for over the past month. I have been to see my doctor about it (before 35 weeks) and he told me how to tell if they were something to worry about and they weren't, they were just kind of there. So anyway, I still have tons and tons of BH contractions and, while they're stronger than they were 3 weeks ago, they're not painful nor are they getting stronger / closer together / developing into a labor pattern. But I am having some new feelings. I've have new / different back pain (not associated with the contractions, though, just kind of achy) and I have woken up the past three mornings to very vague menstrual like cramps; not quite pain, but achy. I haven't lost my mucus plug or anything, but sometimes with the contractions, I feel almost like a pinching feeling in my vagina so I'm thinking that's probably dilation. It's hard to tell if I've "dropped" because I have a really long torso and my uterus never really felt that high to begin with. I'm not in any hurry to deliver and am actually still remarkably comfortable, so I'm asking more out of curiosity than anything else: Does this sound like signs that I might go into labor soon? Or is it just too hard to predict?

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I will ask him, but sometimes it's nice to get info from the moms on here. So thanks for sharing your experiences with me.

[Anonymous]

I expect you'll hear a full range of responses this question OP, and it's so hard to be where you are, where you analyze every single twinge and subtle shift in symptoms. I did this with #1, and am starting to get there again, now that I'm almost 36 weeks. But FWIW, my experience with #1 was: I was 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated for weeks, and then went 1 week past my due date. Although I agonized over everything, the only thing that sticks out now was that for two days before my water broke (which is how my labor *really* started), I had contractions about 10 minutes apart. They sometimes tapered off and started up again, but never got closer than 10 minutes apart, and never got more intense than intense BH (i.e. not painful, but definitely made me pause what I was doing). I did lose my mucous plug over about a day or two during this time period. After all that waiting, having my water break was such a relief - this baby really is going to come out!!! Hang in there OP, and good luck!