Difference between cramps and contractions?

Jllacombe

Hi all! My name is Jess and I am new to thebump and I have a question about cramping and contractions.

 

When I was pregnant with my son in 2006, I had gone into labor but had NO idea. I never felt ANY cramping or pain, then at about 8 at night I started leaking clear fluid every 10 minutes or so but still no pain. I had gone to bed and had been waking up every hour on the hour between 12am and 3am when finally i decided to call the doctor cuz i thought my water had been broken. He told me to go in to get checked, and when 1 got to the hospital (still no pain at all) and got checked i was 6 centimeters dilated! I was also 4 weeks early so it was totally unexpected. So my son was born at 36 weeks and healthy as ever weighing in at 6lbs 6oz.

I am now pregnant with a baby girl and I am a few days short of 30 weeks. I have been having some minor cramping that happens to be irregular and very minor back pain at some points. They aren't consistent or grow in strength so as of now, I believe them to be braxton hicks contractions. But like i said before, i never experienced any of this with my first pregnancy so I have no idea what to expect. I read that some signs of early labor, or that u may be going into labor within the next few weeks was weight loss (i have lost about 4lbs so far since my last dr. visit which was 2 weeks ago), also more frequent and loose BM's, which i have also had. I had a very small amount of clearish vaginal discharged but figured its just normal at this stage. Another sign was a feeling of resltelessness and or marked fatigue which I have been having a great deal of both the past week or so. Also another was that when your weight shifts to your pelvic and uterus area with some minor pelvic pressure and more frequent peeing, which i have started to have the past few days, I am concerned there is a possibility that I may be close or "getting ready" especially being I was early with my first son and the doctors say it is definitely a possibility of me going early again however they did not seem concerned and everything was normal at my last visit. I also have partial previa and they are monitoring me with ultrasounds to see if they may need to set a c-section in place. My next ultrasound in oct. 7 and will know more then. The cramps come and go and are not regular but when i do have them they are very sharp. And because i never felt any real contractions with my last labor (they gave me an epidural before i really felt any) I am totally blind to all the of feelings of real labor.

Any advice or opinions or thought you all have would be GREAT! thank you in advance.