What do your BH contractions feel like?

[Tasha505]

It's fair to say that my BH contractions are very uncomfortable. More so than with my first pregnancy. I feel them more strongly in my back (which scares me and makes me worry about having back labor...something I never had the first time), I also tend to feel a strange light headed-like feeling, and it feels like my whole body is being squeezed.

I'm just curious to know how everyone describes theirs, since this pregnancies BH contractions are different from my first... I wondered if everyone felt them a little differently.  

[Tasha505]

No problem! Today I started having one while I was driving and it took me a second to realize what it was. Sometimes it just feels as if the baby is pushing really hard against your belly.
What your mom said isn't a bad guess... I'd say she could be right on! Definitely makes sense!

[sameerab]

My bh are painful this time around so much so I think the real thing is coming sooner then I hope......my whole stomach gets soooooo hard and tight

[MissmyAngel]

I've been getting these pains on my lower abdomen that hurt a lot, it feels like I'm bruised all the way across my lower belly. They last for a few minutes and are gone. My belly does feel hard when it happens, thinking they might be braxton hicks.

[FreshLove]

Thanks, I'm sure I am and they just aren't that strong. My mom said the pain in my belly could be the baby growing (thus my uterus growing)? If so baby Gabriel is on a roll and going to be a big healthy baby! LOL

[Tasha505]

BH contractions generally only last about 30 seconds- 1 minute. Your belly gets really hard and you feel pressure, like your belly is being squeezed. But as you can see, they can also be accompanied by many other symptoms... you may be having them and just not realize it. I'm sure you are, I started getting them around 6 1/2 months.

I'm just wondering why this pain you speak of lasts for a couple of hours... that doesn't sound like a BH contraction at all.... or any other kind of contraction for that matter...

[FreshLove]

I'm not sure if I'm even having braxton hicks. I didn't think I was until I read this post and now I am really confused.

I am 30 weeks and about 2 or 3 weeks ago I started getting a pain in my whole belly (kinda like sore muscle pain after you work out for the first time in awhile, lol) that would only happen once or twice a week and last for a couple of hours sometimes. I thought maybe it was ligament pain but it's not on one side or the other...it's ALL OVER MY BELLY, from down by my hips up to beneath my breast. When it does this it especially hurts if I try to sit up from a laying position and sometimes it is accompanied by a pressure in my bladder that is almost painful.

I just thought it was a weird pregnancy symptom...but now I am not sure.

[Heatherm4]

Ok...this is baby #1 for me and I'm not sure when I have BH. I'm just going by what I think they are. I feel sometimes crampy or I'll feel like my ovulation pain almost but it never lasts long...or sometimes I'll feel like szw2008 said and it's like I have to pee really bad or something. Maybe I still have yet to feel a real BH contraction...I dunno!

[alaysha]

I'll just be sitting at home doing nothing and all of a sudden I'll get light headed and a little dizzy. I asked my doctor about it and she its because I'm low on iron. I would look into it.

Also, my contractions vary. Some of them are horrid little suckers that leave me gasping for breath and others are like szw's where I feel pressure on my bladder which is EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Its just too weird of a feeling.

[szw2008]

Hahaha I never thought to ask anyone how their BH contractions feel! Smart question Tasha! Mine don't make me short of breath actually- they just make me feel like I have to pee really bad. I wouldn't say mine necessarily "hurt" but it's an uncomfortable pressure/pain. Eh- hard to explain? I'm getting used to them now but the first time I felt them I didn't really know what it was until after it was done and they really were painful (pain may have been fear induced). Now I just kind of walk a little and they're gone!

It's funny you feel light headed- we went to Taco Bell yesterday and ate inside and I got up to get our tray and I'm not 100% sure how to explain it but I felt like bees were bumbling around in my head kind of (weird way to explain it I know)- but it was ALMOST like being light headed, but not quite? My head felt weird and I felt sort of tired all at once. GAH- I've been trying to figure out how to explain it so I can tell my midwife. It was just weird and sudden. I didn't get up fast or anything it just hit me. It didn't last long, but it was a weird feeling. It could have been from all the talking that was going on- sensory overload maybe?

[Tiffiepooh]

I am pregnant with my first baby and my BH contractions hurt a lot more painful than anything anyone said they would be. They are nothing like the period cramps I have ever had and they make me double over and lose my breath sometimes. I am afraid to see what my real contractions are going to be like if these are just practice.

[Tasha505]

you poor girl... yours sound really bad!! I'm sorry... :-(

[Tasha505]

Ok, so the out of breath thing is normal too... yeah i experience that as well!! Like I'm just being squished.

[cocacolapanda]

For me my BH contractions are defiantly stronger then with my first (I didn't even remember feeling any with my first).  It feels like a very minor contraction to me.  I feel somewhat out of breath and my entire belly gets hard and sore.

[nickieb85]

I swear that my BHs are just as terrible as the real ones! I feel like my whole belly, hips, chest/lungs are being squeezed sooo terribly hard that I can't breath and I double over in pain =o) Fun stuff. Apparently this is normal (from what my doc says) but I am having a super hard time believing it. I have an appt on Tuesday (hopefully I will have new pics of Marley to share!) and I will be checked then for dilation and cervical changes! They are really awful!