Yesturday morning I had experienced a little cramping and a light 'show'! It went away but the cramping came back a little bit in and out trhough the day. Now this morning about about 3:00am I woke up and couldn't sleep. I started having bad cramps that lasted sometimes a minute and were about 6 minutes apart. I also had found alotof bloody mucus when I went to the bathroom and I still have some. I tried going back to sleep after about 2 hours and then woke up and now I'm getting a little more cramping here and there. Notlike this morning though. So what's going on? Is it just because I'm sstarting to dialte now and that I migth be effacing? Or is it a bit of labour? Help please. DoulaLC or J_9 if your reading this I know you got a good answer for me! You guys helped me through all my other questions.

YOU ARE IN LABOR! Seriously that was probaby your mucus plug u need to go to the hospital

I know it was my mucus plug coming out slowly yesturday and this morning. But the cramps comes and goes not very closely right now.. this is my first pregnancy :confused:

If your not sure the best way is to go to the hospital its better safe than sorry did you call your dr she/he might tell you to go to the ER if you decide to go call your DR first or whoever you are seeing for prenatal care so they know you are going.. they can call the hospital and make sure they take you right away so you don't have to wait in the waiting room

Could be the start of labour... just keep an eye on how things progress. Take care of any last minute arrangements you need to make just in case and rest as much as you can for now.
If you start to notice they begin to pick up again, get plenty to drink and change your activity. If they continue, get closer together and stronger, give your midwife or doctor a call.
If it is early labour, it can go on like this for quite sometime or it can pick up. Often it is suggested to head in when they have been about 3-5 minutes apart for at least an hour... but see how you feel as well.

Good luck... hope it happens soon for you!

Well, I went through this twice and with my first... the slight bloody show was the mucus plug... guaranteed the next evening I broke my water and went into heavy labor... 11 hours of stage 1, 6 hours of stage 2 and 2 hours of stage 3.

With my second, there was no show BUT that cramping that sort of feels like a knife twisting up in the cervix was me dilating... I started pre-labor for the whole week. BIG THING... if you have contractions and they are persistent, haven't gone away, getting stronger, more frequent then you are dilating and are in labor... go to the hospital to get assessed. This happened to me with my boy and 3:00 am I couldn't sleep, 8:30 am - 5:30 pm the contractions went from 25-30 seconds long and 5 minutes apart (mind you they where not extremely painful - manageable)... I went to the hospital at 6:00 pm and they said that I was in labor and that I was not going anywhere since I was 6 cm dilated, sack hanging out and 80% defaced (thinned out). They popped my water at 7:30 pm (8 1/2 cm dilated) and I hit stage 2 labor from 8:00 pm - 8:40 pm and he came out 8:58 pm. (Very lucky this time around - 1 hour of stage 2 and 3)

Go to the hospital... if you don't feel right about it, your probably right.