Need some advice

So this is my first baby so I am absolutely clueless. For the past week, I’ve been having period like cramps but today they were stronger plus I’ve been having really bad lower back pain. In the past couple days, I’ve had at least 2 or 3 that were so painful, I was doubled over. My doctor told me that it’s normal to have cramping as I’m almost at 39 weeks. How do I get it to keep going to hopefully get it to turn into labor? It only lasts like 2 hours and then it is intermittent for the rest of the day. I can’t handle it anymore though and I’m going crazy! Is it even contractions? Should I just ignore them? Any advice at this point is welcome but please no negative comments. I’m already exhausted and stressed because I people ask me if it’s contractions and it upsets me to not know because I’ve never gone through this before.