early signs of labor

I am impatiently waiting to go into labor and I would love to hear about your experiences so I know what to look for. I read stuff every day about the early signs and I just wanted to know which, if any, you all experienced before acually going in to labor. And when you started to feel those signs, how long was it before you went into actual labor?
So far I know I've "lightened" because the baby has dropped into the -1 pelvic station. I'm not dilated, but 50% effaced. I've been having a low dull backache on the left side since yesterday, but that's about it. I keep reading about the nesting and burst of energy thing and I don't know if I've had that. Overall, my enegry level has been up through my whole pregnancy and I frequently get into moods where a project need to be completed or something needs to be cleaned- so that's nothing out of the ordinary.

Re: early signs of labor

I didn't get that BURST of energy at the end, but I wasn't super-tired either. The whole day before I went into labor I had pain in my pelvic area, all around b/c the baby was sitting really low. I'm not sure what station I was. Finally around midnight it really hurt and I was trying to sleep sitting up, but at that point no contractions...I didn't want to call my doctor but I couldn't stand it anymore. He had me go to the hospital, they told me I was 90% effaced but only dilated about 2cm. They wanted me to go home and walk it off, I couldn't though, I literally could barely walk! Good thing I didn't go home b/c Matteo was born that afternoon at 1:20pm! All in all, it wasn't too bad, only a half hour of pushing! It's amazing.

I wish you the BEST of luck!!