Pain, but no contractions?

I've been having period like pains for several days now. They are not time-able since they are just consistent. I also have had some radiating back pain along with the cramping and a horrible pain on the right side that lasted all day (which felt like a very painful and long lasting round ligament type pain). I'm 38 weeks and 3cm dilated, but so far I've had nothing resembling how people describe contractions. I read that sometimes the period like cramping actually could be contractions. What do you think??? Could all these pains actually be contractions that I'm not recognizing as that? Or just more aches and pains from my body preparing for labor?