Labour????

Nancy
Can labour start right away at 5 minutes apart?? I had about 3 contractions before I realized I was having contractions so I started timing them and they're all close to 5 minutes apart. I'm a first time mom so I'm not sure if it's actual labour or not. I just don't want to get my hopes up and call my husband who's at work for another 3 hours just for it to be false labour