ftm, 1 day to go

[chantal322]

Quick question about contractions as I only have a day to go and still quite in the dark about all of this!
Contractions....will they start ouy of nowhere, intensely, or will they sort of start as mild cramps with more of a build up of pain?! Not quite sure what to expect...mainly concerned about just being in a great deal of pain from the get go, which I'm assuming is what will happen!

[chantal322]

Awesome responses, thank you mama's! I now have a much better idea of what to expect!  

[Sass508]

I just had my baby so I remember it well. For me they started as mild cramping through the night. My water broke in the morning and contractions were tolerable up until a certain point. When you hit that point... You know, the "give me the epidural!!!" point.
So for me they built up in intensity and my labor was 7 hours. Everyone's is different I suppose

[Rachel__grace_]

Both my labors/contractions started feeling like bad diarrhea cramps. Then diarrhea plus bad period cramps. The first labor was just like bam, nonstop close together contractions. When i got to the hospital he was delivered in 2 hours. The second was a little slower, contractions werent as intense right off the bat, so i had time to download a labor timing app and sat there and timed them while i fixed my hair and put on some concealer lol. She was delivered 5 hours after I got to the hospital (I waited about an hour at home until they were 5 min apart).

[lousie_1986]

Mine were gradual... In total I had a 18 hour labour. At first they came about every 15 minutes for an hour or 2, very low intensity (just felt like something between a strong Braxton hicks and a light poo cramp lol), then 10 minutes apart for another 5 hours or so, still very low intensity. Honestly, I can't really say they bothered me much until around 14 hours later then they really started to ramp up! Everyone is different obviously but that was my experience :)