labor question?

[Karen43]

Hi ladies,
I have a question for those of you with a little more experience than me. I'm 40 weeks today with my 1st. Yesterday I woke up and had a mucus discharge kind of tinged with blood all day. Sorry if this is TMI. Also having contractions on and off and at some points sever lower back pain. Then I woke up at 3am this morning and was have contractions lasting about 45 sec and they were every 10 mins. until about 5am. Then it stopped. Now I still have very bad lower back pain and getting contractions but they are nor regular. I guess my question is how long could I possibly go on like this?

Thanks a lot,
Karen

[marya]

From what I've been told (despite this being my third pgcy I've never gone into labor on my own, I always get induced), it could go on for a couple of days like this. You may want to see your OB today because the backache you feel could be back labor, so you may be progressing. If not, then you can hang around your house until the contractions start becoming regular or until your water breaks.

Good luck!! It will be soon!

[playitagainsam]

My advice: I had the same experience with dd. I was 39 weeks, having some mild craming, cm, etc. Midwife checked and I was at 3 cm. I went home, came back in a few days (having the same cramping, irregular contractions, but no real labor) and I was at 4 1/2. They decided to induce me then. I really regret this--labor without an intact bag of waters was awful, my body didn't respond well to induced labor so they had to use pitocin, things just really spiraled out of control. Unless you are in intolerable discomfort, I would just see about letting your body do what it's doing until contractions become more regular (with your OB or midwife's support, of course). I firmly believe that if I had waited and not induced, labor would have been a LOT easier because my body was doing a good job at getting the early work out of the way without a lot of effort on my part!

Good luck:
Jessica