Length of time in Pre- labor

I'm just curious what the average time people spend in pre-labor. Not
the horror stories saying it lasted for 8 weeks or anything. Just what
is the average time.
and by pre-labor I mean the period like cramping the dull lower back
ache being sick to your stomach and having diarhea. And being almost
psychotic about getting everything done.

Anna.Nicole.m wrote:
I'm just curious what the average time people spend in pre-labor. Not
the horror stories saying it lasted for 8 weeks or anything. Just what
is the average time.
and by pre-labor I mean the period like cramping the dull lower back
ache being sick to your stomach and having diarhea. And being almost
psychotic about getting everything done.

Hmmm. Intense pre-labor began about 2am and contractions were 5 mins
apart/1 min long about 7am, so I guess 5ish hours. By 'intense' I mean
constant diarhea and cramping. I was on the toilet all night and when I
wasn't was on all fours ont he floor trying to relieve my back pain. I
didn't even realise it was pre-labor, just thought I'd had bad chicken
for dinner.

However, I had off and on diarhea (or more like a lot of loose bowels)
and dull cramping for a few weeks prior. I can't recall being psychotic
about getting stuff done - I know I had spurts of that, but I don't
think the day immediately pre-labor I did much. And by the time I was
in the intense pre labor was in too much pain.

Hmmm. Intense pre-labor began about 2am and contractions were 5 mins
apart/1 min long about 7am, so I guess 5ish hours. By 'intense' I mean
constant diarhea and cramping. I was on the toilet all night and when I
wasn't was on all fours ont he floor trying to relieve my back pain. I
didn't even realise it was pre-labor, just thought I'd had bad chicken
for dinner.

they had me go into the hospital on Saturday I started having
contractions friday night around 8pm that were under 5 minutes apart
and lasting about a minute, so saturday around 5pm I called the
midwife. and she had me come into the hospital b/c I was just shy of
34 weeks. within 3 hours of being there all the contractions had
stopped but I had dilated more now 3 cm and 60% effaced. but since
then I've just had short spurts of contractions for a few hours or so
then they stop but the crampy achy sickness hasn't gone away since we
were discharged from the hospital.

I have an appointment tomorrow so I'll find out some more then. the
contractions are light now it's just that horrible feeling that you ate
something bad for you, and going to the bathroom should make it stop,
LOL but it doesn't.

thanks for the information.

Hi,
with my first child I was in labour from start to finish for 47 hours, that
was HELL...with my second I was in labour for 4 hours and with my third I
was in labour for 2 hours start to finish.
In the days before labour I was increasingly restless and found it hard to
sleep as there seemed like so much I had to do, I had a very strong nesting
instint.
Both my 2nd and 3rd were pre-term babies at 35 and 34 weeks respectively and
I dont know if that makes any difference but the births were just so much
easier, no pain relief, no stitches no nothing!
HTH
Clair
"Anna.Nicole.m" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm just curious what the average time people spend in pre-labor. Not
the horror stories saying it lasted for 8 weeks or anything. Just what
is the average time.
and by pre-labor I mean the period like cramping the dull lower back
ache being sick to your stomach and having diarhea. And being almost
psychotic about getting everything done.

With dd, at 35 weeks I had a couple of hard contractions and noticed
that I thought I was losing my mucus plug (kind of gross, but I had
extra gloopy discharge). We had gone to an Evanescence concert that my
husband had bought "best available" tickets for--turns out, they were
in the "pit" (aka, mosh pit....not really where you want to be when
hugely pregnant)--the crowd was tame, and I found leaning space along
the perimiter and enjoyed the show. Upon checking with my handy
collection of pregnancy books, i concluded that I was wrong about the
mucus plug thing, since that tends to happen 1-2 weeks before labor,
not 3-5 weeks beforehand.

The following week, I had a baby shower and ate a ton of yummy homemade
salsa, containing ample amounts of cilantro, which I appear to be
mildly allergic to (generally gives me a touch of diarrhea). The
Monday after my family left (me at 36 weeks), I had diarrhea, and
attributed it to the cilantro. I also felt the urge to clean all of
the old medicines out of the guest bathroom that would soon become a
kid's bathroom--I'd been off work for a week and figured I'd finally
gotten past lazing around watching TV and had energy to tackle some
projects in my month off before the baby came.

Tuesday morning at 7am I woke up and ran to the bathroom, thinking that
I had to pee. The "urine" never stopped (my water had broken), and
shortly before midnight that night my daughter was born.

I can't help about the 2nd--let you know in 5-6 months
--Elit.
#2 due 3/28/07 (or, as I like to say, "sometime in March")

Anna.Nicole.m wrote:
I'm just curious what the average time people spend in pre-labor. Not
the horror stories saying it lasted for 8 weeks or anything. Just what
is the average time.
and by pre-labor I mean the period like cramping the dull lower back
ache being sick to your stomach and having diarhea. And being almost
psychotic about getting everything done.

it varies hugely, there have been people here, who I feel really sorry for
who've had stuff going on fairly strongly from 37 weeks and been induced at
42. In my first pregnancy, I definitely had bouts of what you are describing
for a few days at a time, making everyone think baby was coming, me be given
steroids etc. it sure felt the same as what happened in the 4 days or so
before I actually delivered, but until you actually go into labour, you
don't know whether it was prelabour, or a random event, there is a distinct
possibilty the diarrhoea could be of a different cause, which could then be
causing/making worse the contractions. In the end you've just got to try and
relax and do your best to wait it out. Are you drinking red raspberry leaf
tea? if you're not, you might want to try, it is a uterine tonic and should
calm down an irritated uterus, which is essentially how yours is behaving,
if you are drinking it, you might want to up the quantities, or stop
completely, just in case it is aggrevating anything.

Cheers

Anne