Contractions?

Last night while I was laying in bed I started to have contractions. Unlike the ones I've had before they were actually painful. I texted my best friend and was telling her about it and she said that I should call my doctor. Honestly I haven't called my doctor in a few months because my appointments are predetermined dates and I didn't have the number. So I decided not to call and see if I could get them to stop on my own by drinking some water and laying on my side. It did end up going away eventually but I was really panicking for a little bit about it. I was born at about 26 weeks myself and I didn't want my baby to be born too early as I'm only 25 weeks. The whole day before this even happened I had been feeling this tightness in my belly. Should I be worried about this? I'm not having any issues at the moment and baby has been moving normally but I am still real worried about something bad happening and I just don't know if I'm overthinking the whole thing or if maybe I should actually be worried. Should I talk to my doctor if it happens again or it gets worse? Should I talk to my doctor about this as soon as possible? I'm a FTM so I don't have a very good idea on what's normal and what's really

an issue. Sorry for such a long post over nothing. I guess I really just need some opinions or something's about what to do. I don't want to worry my family by asking them about it.