Sorry, forgot your not a ftm when i was typing lol. So your labor probably wont be as long. But i live 20 min from the hospital and she said not to come in until they are 2-3 min apart.
I had false labor the day before yesterday, my contractions were 15 min apart some painful some not and then they stopped when i went to bed, i had an appointment yesterday with my doctor and asked her. Im ftm. She said that real contractions are very painful to where you can barely talk through them, the closer they get the more painful they are... Some of them may be painless but for the most part they will all be painful. She also said that for first time moms labor last roughly 24 hrs and that although its hard to explain once you are in real labor you will know and be like oh thats what everyone is talking about.