Labor starting randomly?

Gina • Jackson Paul born 12/6/2016 💙 Jonathan Barrett born 6/22/2018 💙 👦🏼👶🏻

This is for women on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th pregnancies. My water broke with my first and the contractions started about 10-15 minutes later. I knew I was in labor obviously because my water broke. What about when labor starts with contractions? Are they small and work their way up or is it like - BOOM real and painful contractions out of no where?