Would you consider this "Early Labor"? (long)

I have been Googling all day to see and try to understand what is going on with me so I can better inform my doctor about it all at my appointment Wed. morning without sounding like an idiot lol.... but yeah... I am just making myself more confused by it all the more I read up on "Early Labor"....

So here is what has been happening:

Last week... Not this past weekend but the weekend before that I started getting more of those fun BH contractions... they always got worse and closer together at night... I would get like 5 or 6 before bed and that was that.

Last Wed. I had my OB appointment and she didn't like how much shorter and how squishy my cervix felt and how low and engaged the baby wasso she told me to come back the next day for a cervical ultrasound. She then told us that we could have sex if we wanted to but to use a condom to keep the semen off my cervix. (which I didn't think made much sense because of my PTL history this and last pregnancy... but I figured she knew what she was talking about)...

Last Thursday I went in for my cervical ultrasound. I told the tech that I had been contracting all morning (2-3 an hour). She did the ultrasound and come to find out my cervix is 10 mm shorter than last time (in August) and so the tech went to talk to my Dr. They moved up my next appointment a week to do a fetal fibronectin test and told me that if I had 3 or more contractions in a 10 minute time frame then to go into L&D. (my appointment is this Wed BTW).

Contractions stayed that way (2-3 an hour) all day and all night Thursday and again stayed that way all day and nightFriday and again all day Saturday.Saturday night my SO and I had sex (again... the Dr said we could so we figured we would be safe) and I was contracting pretty good fora while afterwards but figured they would die off like they normally did after an hour or so. I went to bed around 12 ish and woke up to strong contractionsSundayat about 2am. I went out into the living room to breath through them and to get on contractionmaster.com to time them. From 2am to about 5:30am they were 2-3 minutes apart and lasted 1-1.5 minutes then died out to 3-5 minutes apart lasting 1.5-2 minutes (and the pressure and pain was unbearable!)then around 6 they spaced back out to 2-3 an hour lasting 30 seconds to 1 minute and they have been that way ever since....

(most of you are probably wondering why the hell I didn't go to L&D that morning, I had the same thing happen to me a million and one times the last month of my pregnancy with my daughter so I wanted to make sure it was actually labor and not false labor and stop as soon as I got to the hospital. I decided to wait it out until my SO got up at 7 and have him take me if they were still at least 5 minutes apart but they died out to 2-3 an hour by then and I just went to bed).

Also ever since all that happened Sunday I have had loose bowel movements and I just went to the bathroom (after another contraction) and my mucus plug (which has been oozing out little by little for a week or so now) was tinged slightly pink...

Would you describe all this as "Early Labor"? Or what? lol.... Andwhat the hell would you describe what happened to me Sunday morning as??? False Labor???

Thanks for reading and thank you ahead of time for all your replies.
Veronica

I had the same thing with my second pregnancy as well...started dilating early, effacing early, real AND fake contractions pretty much all day, tons of false labor...pretty much everything you said. It sounds normal for your second pregnancy and you WILL know when it's the real deal. Trust me. As soon as I got that first REAL contraction I knew right away.

The only thing that worries me is that you're only 31 weeks. I'd stick with what your doctor told you about having 2-3 in less than 10 minutes. My doc actually told me more than 4 an hour I should go in, so next time that happens I'd say go to L&D so if it IS labor, they can stop it. I know it sucks to keep getting sent home and you start to feel like an idiot seeing them week after week, but you never know when it might be the real deal and you don't want to wait too long to go in at 31 weeks.

Good luck!

Im not a doctor, but I would think so, but its also really not any indication of when shes coming either... Im just hoping that she stays in longer for you!

Arent they giving you anything to stop the contractions?

My sis had stuff like that for like 3 or 4 weeks, maybe a little longer, before she had her baby. Some have it a few hours before, others a few days before, and others for weeks before the baby comes. I had it a day or two before, and then all day the day before, so I didn't have much early labor stuff.

Quoting JessaBaby[LondonsMommy]:“ Im not a doctor, but I would think so, but its also really not any indication of when shes coming either... ... [snip!] ... coming either... Im just hoping that she stays in longer for you! Arent they giving you anything to stop the contractions?”

yeah I went into PTL at 25 weeks and they prescribed me Procardia. It only works when it wants to (which isnt too often).

Next time they get close like that I am definitely going to go in... I thought about it afterwards and wanted to kick myself because I started worrying about how those contractions so close together might have changed my cervix even more.

Quoting ThePreggoChuckNorris:“ yeah I went into PTL at 25 weeks and they prescribed me Procardia. It only works when it wants to (which ... [snip!] ... kick myself because I started worrying about how those contractions so close together might have changed my cervix even more.”

I really think you should bring all of these problems up to your doctor. I thought you had said in your last update that you were back on pelvic bedrest... Please just take it easy and make it a priority to inform your doctor of your issues. Trust me when I say that having a baby prematurely sucks. Seeing my beautiful babies hooked up to iv's and feeding tubes in an incubator was horrible. If your doctor doesn't listen, get a second opinion. Rest when ever you can. Do everything in your power to make sure that baby stays inside of you. If this keeps up your going to land yourself in the hospital on magnesium and severe bedrest.
I hope you don't take this as a rant but more of a sincere hope that you continue your pregnancy as close to term as possible.

Quoting blessedwithfour:“ I really think you should bring all of these problems up to your doctor. I thought you had said in your ... [snip!] ... I hope you don't take this as a rant but more of a sincere hope that you continue your pregnancy as close to term as possible.”

I put myself back on pelvic rest but my SO talked me out of it Saturday night by bringing up the fact that our Dr said it was ok to have sex and I was just paranoid.... I am DONE with the whole sex business from here on out. I really want Asyia to stay in for as long as possible... I am definitely going to let my Dr know about all this come my appointment Wed morning though. I know you arent ranting and raving and yelling at me I am taking in every word you say as someone who has had experience with all this and NICU babies before and I really do appreciate it.