What are your braxton hicks like?

Mine felt like my stomach and lower abdomen turned to stone for about a minute.. they weren't usually painful, just uncomfortable.

MIne actually feel more like real contractions this time.. in the scheme of things not really painful but they do have a wee bite to them.

Sometimes they feel a bit AF crampish other times I can feel the uterus tightening.

Now I've been having some other non-BH contractions and these do make my abdomen go hard, but I also feel a massive weight on my chest and I get this sort of pressure sensation spreading around my head and my teeth ache. The closest thing I can equate the teeth to is when my eldest daughter accidentally threw her head back and connected with the bridge of my nose breaking it. I really felt that in my teeth and this is a lesser version of that.

Does that sound strange to anyone???

I basically feel as though someone is sitting on me and they are definitely more than uncomfortable. When they happened on the CTG, the baby's heartbeat got very faint, although the heartrate didn't alter and he goes really quiet and doesn't move at all. I imagine it gets really tight in there. The mw said my uterus was contracting at the time I had these contractions and she said they weren't bh.

Is this making sense? I've had bh with other pregnancies and these are TOTALLY different. Were yours different with each pregnancy or pretty much the same, the ones I had with each of the girls were fairly similar and so not like these ones, I'm wondering if there's something wrong and if it is an irritable uterus, then why after having a nice contented one for all these years.

At the end of pregnancy mine felt like AF cramping. Before then it just felt tight. Not really painful ya know?

Never had anything like yours, I would get it checked out too though by the sounds of it your midwife was with you when you had some??

Mine feel much more contraction like with this pg.. with Jake I just had mild tightenings or one random spot of my bump would go hard.. so yup different. Nothing like yours though!

For the most part mine were just a really tight feeling, however from time to time they did get painful, however I think that was more because I'd often get a few of them in quick succession, especially after a big walk or something, they would occassionally stop me in my tracks.

 

Although, it was nothing like what you have described, I would definately be getting that checked, just to be on the safe side. Good luck

Kazzam,
They sound quite similar to mine, at least more than any others I've heard of. I've been told not to worry as as long as it doesn't alter my cervix, then I'm not in labour. But it bloody feels like it sometimes.

I haven't found any correlation between stress and the contractions. I'm also still getting normal BH which aren't like the ones I've described above so it's all a bit funny. My mw also said that the more babies you've had the more irritable uterus can occur which is what I've been diagnosed with and what it sounds like you might have Kazzam. If it continues then it may be worth mentioning IU to your mw. Just a thought unless you're incredibly more chilled than me.

Kazzam and sarahG, mine were alot like your too. Ended up having a false labour at 35weeks when they got intense. i had them for the last 3ish months everday of my pregnancy. in the end when i did go into labour i did even know for the first two hours, considering my labour was 3hrs 45min start to fin it didnt really give me alot of time to get to hospital (20min away).

its definetly something its better to get checked out, sometimes mine were consistant and got to a couple of min apart and were super intense, my midwife said taking a bath will either stop them but if they are real contractions it helps your labour progress. the bath thing didnt really work for me but taking panadol was like flicking a switch! they would stop just like that and id be able to get a good night sleep.