Contractions?

If any of you ladies have felt contractions, what do they feel like? I'm 36 weeks as of Sunday and I've been waking up in the middle of the night with my stomach hurting so bad. Along with this morning I was walking and my stomach felt like it tightened and started to hurt. Idk what the difference is between contractions or just my muscles aching. My husband told me I would wake him up from whimpering and he said he'd put his hand on my stomach to rub it to make me fall asleep, baby girl was apparently awake and kicking too. I don't think I could consider it contractions, I don't feel in pressure in my pelvic area. It hurts sometimes but that's it. 🤷🏼‍♀️