Contractions...how do they feel?

Well i am in my 38th week now!! yay!! congrats to all you mommies who've made it this far also and are almost done!!! to this day i have not felt a contraction...it's normal right? i hear they hurt but i wanna feel at least one to see how they feel. lol i am just afraid of getting one while driving somewhere! eek that would suck!!! hopefully soon but who knows has anyone elsenot had contractions either?

Quoting C12issyMommY:“ Well i am in my 38th week now!! yay!! congrats to all you mommies who've made it this far also and are ... [snip!] ... one while driving somewhere! eek that would suck!!! hopefully soon but who knows has anyone elsenot had contractions either?”

Not sure if other have never had them. I have BH contractions all the time and they get more and more painful. I hear the real thing is much worse though.

Well, mine began like period cramps. They lasted like that for most of the day and gradually got stronger.

I hadn't had any either and last week (at my 38 week appt.) and I was dilated to a 3 already. I have had some menstral-like cramping the past couple days but not any "real" contractions. I'm waiting....impatiently.  

With my last pregnancy it went so fast I went from nothing whatsoever into full on labor in minutes (pre-term). So I know what real contractions feel like. Most likely though you will ease into them and they will start like cramps and then get stronger and stronger. Good luck mama!

I didn't have any contractions, no Braxton Hicks or anything, until the day I went into labor.

The best wayI could describe them to anyone who asked me at the time was really horrible poo cramps.. 
I was in labor for 10 hours before getting my epidural, I think I was 5 cm too. And they didn't really hurt too much to handle at that point. I just wanted to rest. The intensity was definitely a gradual change.
I was on pitocin too, I should say in case that makes a difference.
When my epidural came out of my back and stopped working during pushing, serious cry worthy poo cramps  

I always describe BH as just a tightness in your belly that lasts like 15-30 seconds.... but they normally dont hurt much and the real contractions for me they started in my lower back and worked their way around the top of my belly and then down and got even tighter then a BH contraction... they lasted from 45sec. to a minutes long and they took my breath away.... I was only in labor for 5 hours with my first and didn't have any pain meds. though because my contractions weren't very painful, I guess each person is different when it comes to that part of it.