Conference moira::parenting_v3

    Wendy,
    
    This happened to me. About 2 weeks before I actually went into labor.
    It's hard to explain what it looked like but I'll try without being
    to gross! It was about 1/4 inch long and it was kind of pink and red
    tinged. It kind of looked like skin.(thinking of it makes me cringe!)
    I thought that I would start Labor immediatly untill I referred
    to my What to expect book....about a week before I had a little bloody
    show, small spots, that's it. But not everyone has their plug fall out.
    I delivered 1 week overdue so it happend at 40 weeks for me. I remember
    being really excited, when this happened because I knew it wouldn't be
    much longer. Then when I read the book and it said that this was just
    a sign of early labor, it could be weeks before I actually went into
    labor.
    
    I for forgot what some of your note said, did you say you had this too?
    
    
    
    Sandy

    
    Wendy,
    
    I didn't see my mucous plug until I was 7 hours into labor.  I started
    labor at 5:00PM and went into the hospital at 12 midnight.  I went to
    get changed and there it was on my underwear.  As Sandy explained it
    is pink and red tinged.  I was very nervous but my labor nurse told
    me it was my mucous plug.  I also was very sick the night before.  I 
    was up all night going to the bathroom, I thought I had the flu.
    But my mother told me it was mother nature cleaning me out for the
    arrival of my daughter.  And wouldn't you know I went into labor
    the next day.  After being 8 days late!!!!!  I also didn't sleep
    in my last month.  I dragged myself to work everyday!  That book
    you are reading is the best and keep referring to it.
    
    Good Luck!
    
    Kim
    
    

    With my first baby I noticed the plug when I was drying up after a 
    shower about 8:00 PM. I had the baby about 3 hours later.  
    
    With the second baby I noticed the plug just before I went to the
    hospital, about 2:30 PM.  Laura was born at 4:00 on the nose.
     
    I'm not crazy about the term either.
    
    LZP
    

    I don't like the term "bloody show" either (I think a bloody show is a
    chainsaw-massacre movie).
    
    Mine appeared on Thursday at lunch; not a plug like a cork (!) but with
    the appearance and consistency of apple-butter (sort of a darker,
    thicker applesauce).  I think it might have been streaked with blood. 
    Intermittent labor, not painful, through Friday; I was up all night
    laughing at the contractions til Saturday morning, when I averaged
    somewhere close to 5-minute intervals.  Baby born by c-sec at 2:30pm
    Saturday.
    
    Leslie

    
    No, this hasn't happened to me yet, I was just wondering when and if it
    happened to others.
    
    Sigh, according to the midwife, my baby hasn't even dropped yet,
    officially, I've still got 3 1/2 weeks to go.
    
    	Wendy who is looking very forward to NOT being pregnant (but who
    will probably end up going through it again sometime in the future ;-))

    Wendy,
    
    With my first, I lost my plug in the middle of the night and started
    labor the next morning.  I had an ultra-sound the day before to find
    out my exact due date...  and he was born the next day.  As it turned
    out from the ultrasound, my actual due date was two days before.
    
    I would describe it more like a blood clot.  I remember being VERY
    scared, but excited too.  I knew that labor would be starting soon
    after that.  
    
    I also had heard from others that you get a huge burst of energy just
    before you start labor.  Boy, did I find THAT to be true!  I was at
    home the day before and all of a sudden got the energy to clean the
    house!  I literally washed ALL the curtains, ironed them and hung them
    back up.   That night, I felt like doing some college work, so I made
    my husband (at the time) climb into the attic to get my Accounting
    book!  He wasn't too pleased, but did it anyway.
    
    Has anyone else had a burst of energy before labor?
    
    Peggy
    

    If you want to call SHOPPING a burst of energy then I sure did!!!
    I went out all day by myself the Saturday I went into labor, buying
    little odds and ends. And normally I got so tired going from store to
    store but that day I must have hit every shopping plaza in Worcester
    county!!  The last thing I did before my water broke was go to the book
    store to pick up the book "What to expect the first year", I noticed I
    was having irregular contractions while I was out, every 5 min, then
    ever 20 min etc.etc.... 
    
    Well I was in the house not even 2 min, and I went to the bathroom, 
    and my water broke!   Thank god I made it home in time!!! I couldn't
    have been in a better place to break my water!!!
    
    Sandy

    I didn't get into a lot of cleaning, but as mentioned I stayed up all
    night *enjoying* early labor.  My mom was with me and tried, to no
    avail, to get me to nap between contractions; she said I'd need my
    strength.  Truer words were never spoken, and I think I knew I'd "pay"
    later, but I was sooooo excited.  And the erratic timing of
    contractions was "irregular reinforcement" (Psych 101 says that's the
    strongest kind!) for me.  Plus, the baby was my "canary in a coal
    mine"--she felt the contractions about 30 seconds before I did. 
    Seemingly out of nowhere she'd protest with a great Gene Krupa
    imitation, and I would just crack up.  When the contraction would
    follow, it wasn't strong enough to hurt yet; I'd be laughing so
    hard at the baby, walking around doubled over, I felt like some crazy
    character in a Marx Brothers movie, which would also strike me as
    hilarious.  Even the cat was giving me disgusted looks.
    
    Leslie

    
    Baby #1 now 6.5yrs - I never did see the mucous plug - my water
    broke and that was tinged slightly pink.
    
    Baby #2 now 15 months - I conducted a personal survey similar to this
    one.  I noticed a thick, yellowish discharge the day before my water 
    broke but decided it couldn't have been the plug/show because there
    was no blood.  There was no trace of blood until I delivered.
    
    Rochelle

    I saw the "show" about a week before the baby was born.  By the time I
    was in active labor, it was quite heavy.  (And really grossed me out.)
    The doctors and nurses kept commenting on it, "Great bloody show"--like
    it was something I should be proud of, or even had control over.
    
    Anyway, I found it to be one of the most uncomfortable aspects of my
    labor.  I kept asking them to clean me up because I felt so yucky.
    
    On a related topic, when we took the childbirth classes, the instructor
    kept going on and on when she described the mucus plug.  I thought my
    husband was going to lose it!  She even described it again for a couple
    who arrived late...
    
    judy

    Energy burst.....guess what? For me it isn't a direct association with
    pregnancy, but every single month as part of my PMS Crabbies I start
    this massive major house cleaning.  Funny part is that it usually
    drives me to clean the bathroom, including scrubbing the bathtub,
    shower walls and shower doors first, then on into the kitchen,
    counters, floors etc.  However I do remember starting with a tiny dirty
    spot on the kitchen floor in late pregnancy, and ended up scrubbing the
    whole floor on my hands and knees!  Someone, who was originally from
    England called it a "nesting instinct" when this happens in late
    pregos.
    
    Unfortunately for me the only experience I've had with a mucous plug
    wsa during three miscarriages.  Now it may have had something to do
    with the fact I was only a few weeks along with each, but what I saw
    was something that was the color and consistancy of Oil of Olay skin
    cream, and progressed many hours later to full bleeding.e
     

    I lost the plug about 12 hours before going into labor.  Mine was
    not that pink tinge you hear about, but like someone else said, it
    looked like a blood clot.  
    
    I then started bleeding like I was having my period for the next
    12 hours.  I called the doc when I lost the plug just to see if that's
    what he thought it was.  Then I got real panicky with the bleeding and
    ended up calling him at 3:00 a.m.  He said the bleeding was normal
    but he'd check me out if I'd like since he was at the hospital anyway.
    I ended up believing him and going back to bed (I've never seen a
    book describe the bloody show the way I had it or the bleeding 
    afterwards).
    
    I guess the plug is really big because while I was in labor, the
    doctor said, "I thought you lost your plug".  Guess there was a
    whole bunch more in there.  I never felt it, but like Judy, the 
    doc went on and on about it.  She mostly seemed grossed out, though,
    not impressed.
    
    Donna

    I lost my mucus plug in pieces, starting a week before I delivered
    and then about 4 days before. This also coincided with more frequent
    braxton-hics, that would last an hour or so. I didn't have any bleeding, 
    as previously mentioned - boy would that scare me! - the "what to
    expect..." book didn't mention that; just the two pinkish-bloodish 
    "clots", with nothing in-between or after they "showed"...
    
    Julia (1st time mom experience)

    I did not lose my plug with the first one.  But now that we are on the
    subject I have been noticing some mucos every now and then when I go
    the bathroom.  Any thought on if that might be part of the plug.  I am
    due on Saturday the 24 of August (2 more days) hopefully on time with
    this one.
    
    
    Della

    I lost mine when my water broke, 27.5 hours before delivering my
    daughter.  It looked like what .1 described.  I was expecting a glob of
    red, but it was small and slightly pink.  I never did go into labor
    until that afternoon.  I wouldn't have known it was labor if my water
    hadn't broken (although I could tell labor pains by that night).  I
    didn't know I lost my mucus plug until my midwife told me that's what
    happened.  
    
    Mary