I'm due Monday, 2/22. The last few days I've been having menstrual like cramping. Tonight it's much more painful, radiating into my lower back, and they're lasting about a minute, 5 minutes apart. My stomach isn't 'hard', but it's in my lower abdomen (meaning bottom of my stomach and where period cramps are). I'm a first time mom and I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for- are these actual contractions or just my body preparing for something soon? I don't want to go in unless I really need to- hospital is 45 minutes away.