am i in labor?

Last week was particularly difficult. My beloved godmother and close friend passed away at a young age (only early 60’s!) from cancer. In lesser and hardly comparable news, I’m not sleeping hardly at all; J has erupted into regular night wakings again; and the in-laws were in town this past weekend. Needless to say, I think stress propelled me into “false” labor on Friday night. I put the term false in quotation marks because “false” labor does not mean you are not really having contractions at regular intervals, it means they don’t progress toward the end goal of effacement and dilation. It also means you’d better have your hospital bag packed and a car seat ready because when you’re almost 37 weeks pregnant and your baby has “dropped,” you know neither the day nor the hour, to quote the Good Book. 1) Signs of pre-labor. There’s the usual gambit. Discuss what the signs are with your healthcare provider. Think things like: mucus plug loss, feeling your baby “drop” or “lighten,” regular contractions that increase in length, intensity, and interval. Even these don’t necessarily mean that you are in a labor state that will progress. If you experience any of these, contact your doula and midwife/doctor. They will probably tell you to take a bath, drink water, lay down, and keep them posted. Check out this comprehensive article on pre-labor signs and the last month of pregnancy, here. I had about five hours of regular 5 minute interval contractions, but they…