With my first, I was 41 weeks along and NOTHING was happening. A nurse at my non-stress test suggested I go home and relax (unofficially with a glass of wine). I hadn't touched any alcohol all pregnancy, but decided to share a home brew with the hubs. Almost immediately, I felt my whole body relax and mild contractions started. Apparently, the kid just needed a little motivation and I just needed to chill out! Looking back, the first 12 or so hours of early labor that I had with Nathan is probably about the same as I was experiencing for weeks leading up to labor with both of my girls. With Annika, I started feeling BH contractions around 12 weeks of pregnancy, and with Kaia, as early as 9 weeks! They lasted throughout the pregnancies and became stronger and more regular during the 2-3 weeks before the big show. You'd think that a third time mom who had never been induced would know when real labor would start, but I was pretty worried that I wouldn't know in time to get to the birthing center an hour away. With Annika, the BH contractions had a very distinct change right after midnight on her due date. They became lower and quite crampy feeling. With Kaia, they woke me out of my sleep around 4am on her due date. How's that for clock work! With both girls, contractions alternated every half hour or so from being short, intense, and close together to being long, less painful, and spaced out. My midwife explained that was just my body's way of pacing things while it got some early work out of the way. After weeks of contractions every evening that were 3-7 minutes apart for several hours, I thought I was going to have a super fast labor when things really started happening, but that ended up being a surprisingly long labor. I just puttered along and was actually quite happy and relaxed between contractions up until Kaia got bored and things took off. My water broke and 20 minutes later I was holding her!
Here's a picture of me and my little loves on Valentine's Day 2012, just two weeks before Kaia joined the party!
Feel free to comment with your story or some words of wisdom and support for Tia!
