Prodomal labor

I’ve been having severe contractions that are not Braxton Hicks. These wrap around the belly and when they come, it has severe pain and shooting pain in cervix. I went to the hospital when these contractions became 5min apart lasting for 1 min consistently for an hour but my cervix is only 1cm so they asked me to go home and wait for real labor. The problem is I don’t know what to look for anymore since I have all the same signs of real labor. Anyone had this before?