Hello,

So I am probably like 22 weeks or so. On the morning of 4th of July after a family party the night before (and some 4 wheeler riding which in retrospect may have not been a good idea) I woke up with contractions. I stayed in bed a tried to time them and so now clear pattern, they seemed to clear up after an hour.

This Sunday after a kids birthday party I had some contractions and not good feeling stomach. I went to bed and made a poor attempt to time then and saw no real pattern, I went to bed and when I woke had the same thing going on. Seemed to be about 10 min apart lasting about 1 min each, but they came on noticeably but faded off so hard to tell when they started and stopped. I have no patience for courting and timing these things.

Noticing them periodically since then. I notice them during the day as a balling up of my stomach and when I move (eg take a step up into a car or bend down), the extra pressure is very uncomfortable (I feel like I am 8 months, you know the due any day big tummy feeling) but it goes away. Some are unconformable but the pain/ball/knot is always in the front.

Yesterday afternoon and some this morning I felt some lower pelvic or vaginal pain/pressure/stretching. No fluid or bleeding. No contractions that stop me in my tracks or in themselves that are very worrisome. it is just the duration and frequency of these that bothers me a bit. (And I have had lurky feelings about the pregnancy from the start I can't quote shake)

I have been drinking all sorts of liquids (water, juice, vitamin water ect)

My HCP seem confident it is ordinary braxton hicks, but I just wanted to see if other people had the same thing.

-Amanda

Yes!!!! I did with my first. It scared the bejeezus out of me. Right around the same time too, somewhere in between 20-25 weeks.

I went for a very brisk walk with hubby and although I had felt them before, these were uncomfortable and didn't stop when I stopped. Not painful, but uncomfortable. Had them every 10 mins like you, for around a minute. Drank tons of water at the advice of my HCP. They only slowed very little after rest and sleep, so just to be sure she called us in at 2 am (I had been having them since 4 or 5 that aft.). I would say they were always regular, but would appear and reappear and it just seemed like "too much".

When I was at the hospital the monitored and checked for dilation, monitored a little more and then released. Doc said to start taking it easy, she said maybe it was my body's way of saying to slow down a little more. So I did. Made sure to get my fluids, not exercise outside b/c of dehydration, and started to swim 2-3x a week. I also did some very light weight lifting, no more than 2-5 lbs so lots of reps!

Ended up carrying almost 41 weeks :)

It was freaky though....I could "see" the baby inside of me my uterus would contract so much....

Take it easy, don't bounce up and down so much!!!!! Keep active but be very light on your body about it (little resistance...start swimming!!!!)

Jennybean

I am around 28 weeks and have been having BH consistently for a couple of months (even before startign RRL). Like Jenny said, maybe try drinking more water.

I have had them with Greta and Henrik from week 16 ...
With Edwin from week 18 ...

In Germany they recommend to take Magnesium if you have too many contractions. Not more than 900 mg per day though.
I also have Bryophyllum left - a homeopathic trituration/powder/whatever against pre-term labor ... You are welcome to have it, I rarely used it this pregnancy.

I HATED when everyone told me to drink more water. I was drinking a gallon of water per day - and more (up to 6 quarts) and still had the contractions. So this was not the reason in my case ...

Let me know if you are interested in the Bryophyllum! It worked pretty well for me!

Yep, same here. I had on and off bh from 20wks with Aralyn. The last few weeks of the pregnancy I had crazy strong contrx that sometimes lasted hours! At night I would think for sure I was in labor, they were every ten minutes or so (never really timed them) and were very uncomfortable. Still carried to 40wks (one day shy actually).

Thanks for the offer Katja, but so far a no on the Bryophyllum. I will let you know if the news changes. :)

Thanks everyone for all your words, it really makes me feel a TON better knowing I am not some oddball in this regards.

Yeah, I wasn't big on the water comment either. And I don't think that I was drinking too little, just that I wasn't keeping up with my fluids b/c of the exercise I was doing. In that regard I probably wasn't drinking too much, but I really didn't want to. SO, I drank around the same amt (still alot) and chose to exercise low resistance style inside our gym. Everything got way better after that.

I noticed my BH contractions really early, like 13 weeks and on. Sometimes quite strong and regular. I think it's just normal and some people do not notice or feel them.
People say to drink more water because dehydration can cause preterm labor (or so I've heard), but that doesn't mean every contrx you have are from too little water though. It's just a good precaution to drink more if you aren't sure you are drinking enough (I drank at least a gallon every day with Noah), because sometimes we don't realize how much - or little - we are drinking and sometimes (esp in summer) it isn't enough.
When I told Dr. Lapeyrolerie that I was feeling contractions so early she said, "yep, your uterus contracts the whole time."