If they're consistent I wanna say contractions. With my last pregnancy I had the tightening & the hardness but could bare the pain & it turned out i was actually contracting & I ended up having him the next morning!

Just be careful momma, mine I thought was just Braxton Hicks, they wasnt painful until my water broke.. Then it hurt like hell until his head came out 40 seconds later. No even kidding. Everyone says "you'll know when you're in labor" even the nurses that sent me home at the hospital said that but mine wasn't painful until that point 🤷 it's rare but I wanted to put that out there too

Likely Braxton Hicks. If it becomes painful and there’s a pattern to them, they’re contractions.