At about 3:45am, I started feeling tightening and thought I should time it since its happening more…

At about 3:45am, I started feeling tightening and thought I should time it since its happening more often. I timed from 3:45am to 5:30am. All were between 4 and 7 minutes apart or less and weren't very painful at all. They were just really crampy. While sleeping, I had one wake me up crying because it hurt so bad, but only that one.

Now that I am up, I am cramping a lot (and I mean A LOT), any slight movement from my daughter hurts me, and I have this feeling that I should go get checked, but my family is saying that the contractions should be different than that and its normal.

Please give some advice. This was my first time timing them at almost 40 weeks because I could never feel them so distinctively before now. Should I go get checked, even if it means being sent home or people will think I'm overreacting?