Baby stretching or Braxton Hicks?

[amc80]

For the past several days I've felt what I thought was the baby stretching. A portion of my uterus will get really hard, as if the baby was pushing out with all of his might. Is it possible that these feelings are actually BH contractions? They aren't necessarily painful, more like uncomfortable. Enough so to where it sort of stops me in my tracks and takes my breath away. I had some preterm contractions a couple of weeks ago and these definitely aren't those...but I'm just not sure what it is!

ETA- I'm 31 weeks.

ETA#2- I did a search for "Braxton Hicks or baby stretching" and there are a ton of people asking the same questions. Makes me feel slightly less oblivious

 

[Puppmom]

AMC, I'm not sure but when I went to L&D because of BH that were about 10 in an hour, they had 3 docs put their hands on my belly each contraction. When I would contract, they would each say whether the areas they were covering were really hard. Each time, one of them would say no. Anyway, what made them sure I was having BH is that I had no other symptoms of preterm labor, the contrax weren't painful and didn't progress, and there was at least one area of my uterus that wasn't hard with each contraction. The last *criteria* for BH definitely seems to be what you're explaining.

 

[choro72]

AMC, I can understand how BH and stretching can be confused When the baby is stretching, you should see part of your belly stick out to the side the baby is moving to. My baby love to stretch out to the left AND right, so my belly spreads sideways like a cat in a sack. Also, stretching is usually accompanied by the baby rolling around as well. When you touch your belly, you should feel a little bit of "spring back" action.

With BH, I feel a sensation like the entire fluid in my body is rushing to the uterus. Your belly gets so tight that it won't spring back when you touch it. Actually, it's so tight that you can almost see the outline of the baby. The baby tends to stop moving because he becomes constricted.

In a few weeks your baby will grow so large as well as your BH becoming stronger/frequent that you will definitely be able tell the difference.

 

[PetitiePoire]

I get this too AMC. Thanks for asking the question. I don't feel like it's obvious because my LO is already very forward in my uterus so a full body stretch and a BH feel similar to me. I'm thinking when it stops me in my tracks it's BH.

I had two small contractions show on the monitor last week and I remember DH asking if I just had a contraction and I said "no, I doubt it, I think she just moved."--- but it was a contraction...

 

[MissStepcut]

ETA#2- I did a search for "Braxton Hicks or baby stretching" and there are a ton of people asking the same questions. Makes me feel slightly less oblivious

EVERY TIME I have a question, a million pregnant women before me have asked and answered it. Isnt that crazy? We pregnant chicks must be a neurotic bunch.

 

[amc80]

Thank you for all of the responses! What makes it particularly hard for me to tell what's going on is that (as of last Saturday) baby is head down, so his butt is right above my belly button. And that's exactly where I feel most of these "pains." Which is why I assumed it was just baby sticking his butt out or something, but I'm really leaning towards them being BH. I'll have to pay attention next time to whether or not my belly sticks out when it happens. I'm really thinking it doesn't...I have an OB appointment on Monday, so I'll be sure to ask my OB.

 

[FrekeChild]

Sounds like BH to me. When I would poke at the elbow or whatever was poking out of my stomach, she'd pull it back in and away from my touch, lol. But it sounds exactly like BH contractions to me. Your belly gets really really hard feeling all over and it doesn't last for that long - maybe a couple of minutes. I think the key is hard feeling all over - if it's a limb sticking out, it's only hard where that limb is.

I almost miss being pregnant and watching the little movements in my stomach....