Contractions?

[LittleMissBeatz]

What exactly do contractions feel like??  I keep having this weird pain that I've never had before but it's not constant they are pretty distant apart... Does it feel anything like gas??? PLEASE HELP!!

[NicMom]

Before I noticed that my stomach was getting hard I had cramping in my thighs like I had been doing squats all day, but I was just hainging out at the house. It hurt so bad and so when I went in for my appointment that afternoon I found out it was contractions causing the pain. For me early labor wasn't that easy to spot.

[LittleMissBeatz]

LOL Griggsy!!  I was on depo vera and my period never came back, my doc prescribed me some hormone meds to get my period back but I was being stubborn and didn't want it back so I never filled the prescription so a year and 2 months after I stopped getting my shot I ended up preggo!!  And well here I am almost 9 months later... I had actually went to the doctor to find out why my hands kept swelling I thought that my blood pressure was up when in reality it was a baby causing all my swelling!!!

[AnitaRFrith]

Time the pains.  If they are coming and going and you have 4 or more in a hour... the you need to go to the hospital.  They will monitor you ... better safe than sorry.  Contractions can feel many different ways.  They can feel like cramps, pain and/or pressure in you rectum, back pain, ect.  CALL YOU DR!  See what they want you to do.  Keep us posted.  Antia

( You said that you don't remember what PMS cramps feel like.  If you have ever had a stomach virus, the stomach pain is very similar.)

[Griggsy]

If you don't mind me asking how did you get pregnant with no period?

[LittleMissBeatz]

Believe it or not guys I haven't had a period in like 5 years I can't even remember what my cramps felt like... But everything that you all are describing is going to help me I just know it.. Now I have to try and figure out whether or not it's labor LOL... At my appt yesturday he said that I am officially thinning!! yay me!! And that as far as he knows it could be anytime in the next four weeks!!!

[Griggsy]

I have been having contractions for 2 days now. Nothing extremely painful in comparision to what it will be. If I weren't pregnant I would be looking around for the midol. They feel exactly like a menstrrual cramp, but my whole belly gets hard then relaxes. I am 35 weeks so I have no worries. If I have any loss of fluid, bleeding, or EXTREME pains then I am told to go in.

Good luck, hope this helps!

[chantal21]

I agree with what Joy said. Mine felt a bit like menstrual cramps. My belly would get really hard and I would have pressure like I had to have a BM. But mine weren't painful right away, so I had no idea I was in labor except for the fact that it was happening every 2-3 minutes! Everyone seems to describe them differently, but basically it's a tightening, and then will release, and they should have some sort of pattern to them. You are getting so close!! =)

[JoyRenee]

Contractions are a tightening of the uterine muscles. I couldn't feel mine very well (at first!) so I had to place my hand on my stomach. When my stomach muscles bunched together and got rock hard I knew I was having a contraction.

Some women compare it to menstrual cramping, only more intense.