contractions

So I get pains and stuff like normal. I guess you could say they're like Braxton hicks contractions. But I can never time them bc they're all over the place. Sometimes it's a constant cramping pain for a long period of time then it stops, sometimes they're really close together like unusually close, and sometimes they're super far apart. I'm just confused. Is this normal? Because everyone is always talking about how they time contractions and I literally can't time mine ever. They're so strange.