Labor or False Labor?

I am a FTM and I am 37+5. I have been having what feel like BH contractions but they are coming consistently every 30 minutes for the past 2 hours. Monday I was only 1cm dialated. I was wondering if this could be the start of labor. For the mommas that have been in labor, were the contractions at the beginning really painful or did they start out mild and then became more painful as time went on?