Contractions

I'm now 38 and 2 days along..  Is it normal for strong, painful contractions to start and then stop???  Saturday night around midnight I began contracting and continued till 10 AM Sunday morning.....the contractions were strong, regular, and becoming more painful and unbearable, so I woke up my boyfriend and went for a walk to see if the contractions would get stronger, we walked for about 45 mins. and came home, I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before so tried to take a nap, and when I woke up about an 1 1/2 later the contractions had stopped.  Any one else experience something like this???  And does it mean labor is closer to starting???

[flygirl44]

I experienced that with my first pregnancy and ended up having my daughter in the emergency room because I waited to long!  You really should call your doctor or go to the hospital to get checked out.