? for those of you with outside babies
I feel like an idiot asking this b/c "am I in labor" posts are dumb...but I'm sitting at work and don't know what to do. Since I woke up this morning I've been having what I think are "real" contractions. They are painful, radiating from my stomach to my back and into my upper thighs, occurring every 8-12 minutes, and I have to stop what I'm working on to focus through them. My stomach gets a little hard like it does with BH's, but definitely not as hard as it would with BH's. For some reason I thought your stomach wasn't supposed to get hard with real contractions (which is why I'm doubting myself), but I don't know where I heard that from. I also heard that BH's can get more painful as labor approaches, so I don't know if I'm overreacting. I know everyone says "you'll know when they're real" but I would feel like an idiot if I went home from work because of BH's and not real contractions.
Any advice is appreciated for all you "experts" who have already been through this! 
Thanks ladies!
Henry - Born October 1, 2011
Baby #2 - Due August 30, 2013!
Re: ? for those of you with outside babies
Before my water broke my contractions felt exactly like the BH I had been having for weeks. The only difference was that they were exactly 4 minutes apart. They didn't start getting painful until after the doctor broke my water.
my water broke but afterward i had contractions exactly every 5 minutes.
i had cramps a week before that which were 10-15 minutes apart and would stop if i moved. they weren't doing anything.
I would say if they are consistant and timeable then they are the real deal. If you are afraid of being embarrassed for leaving work because of BH's couldn't you just say you were taking a half day since it is Friday?
Good luck to you and I hope it is really happening!
Thanks for the advice ladies. They haven't gone away even though I've had 4 glasses of water and they're consistently 8-10 min apart! I'm trying to stick it out at work until they get closer or a little more painful.
I would gladly leave work now, but if I make it through most of the day today, with my maternity leave and vacation days, I won't have to come back to work until after thanksgiving, and I'll still have 1 vacation day left for Christmas. It would be perfect timing!