For me it was cramps. I've never had a period cramp so I was unsure. But this was painful so I knew something was up. And they ended up being contractions

@katielee5897, thank you!! :)

I wish you the best of luck!!!! And I hope your labor and delivery was as easy as mine! @shellips

Oh great. Now relax. No more worrying :)

@leahsmommi, true! now I just need my husband to get home from work in case he needs to take me! Haha they seem to have slowed down though, when I started counting they were like 20 sec long and 10 minutes apart but I haven't felt anything in 15 minutes now. @katielee5897 oh goodness, well if I do go in I'll keep in mind that it's likely they'll send me back home. and yes I'm definitely lucky to have the hospital so close.

@shellips, I went by that rule too and I got sent back home which I was annoyed about but the next day I had such strong contractions I went in without counting and I had my girl the next day! It's really great you're so close! I'm over an hour from our hospital so I was super worried haha but definitely use that 5-1-1 rule it's a great indicator

Don't count on your water breaking. Go off instinct. The most that can happen is they send you home. ;)

@leahsmommi, thank you! my water definitely hasn't broken yet so that makes me feel a little better.

@katielee5897, that's what I always thought, once I got further along in labor that I would definitely know, at least the hospital is only 15 minutes away. I always heard of going by the 5-1-1 rule before going in so according to my timer I'm not there yet anyways.

I was dilated four before I realized it and only cuz my water broke. Then the real pain started, you can't miss it.

@kaitlyncouch, that's so scary! I feel like I'm never going to know when to take them seriously, they stopped coming on so frequent now so I'm not worried at the moment but that was the first I'd ever felt anything close to what I've heard they felt like and it wasn't really painful. @haleymclain1121 ugh I wish this stuff was more set in stone! that we'd know exactly what it's going to feel like. & now that I'm almost 38 weeks I know it could happen any day now! I just downloaded a contraction timer app so we'll see if now that I'm paying attention to them if that helps me determine anything.

I was worried too but honestly once you get going it hurts bad and you'll definitely know!

I feel the same way about everything! I had a contraction at my doctors appointment today when my doctor lifted up my shirt to check my baby's heartbeat which I just thought it was a Braxton hicks and it kind of hurt at the bottom of my stomach near my hip bone but nothing unbearable and my doctor said that was a real contraction. I've been having them for days back to back, but they aren't painful.

When I went into preterm labor I could seriously barely feel the contractions. Went to the hospital and was told I was having them every 3 minutes 😳