Congrats and Welcome Lilianddomsmom!
Cappygirl - I agree with the others, real labor contractions are way different from the BH contractions. With all my pregnancies I start contracting very early, 15/16 weeks. So I am very used to the usual tightening, discomfort, etc. But with my older 2, when I was in labor, there was NO mistaking it.
With my first the contractions were different in that they were radiating from my belly to my back, like bad cramping/back pain. They were every 7 minutes apart initially, but I couldn't tell you how long they lasted. When I called my dr's office they were every 5 minutes. The triage nurse said to lay down, drink a ridiculous amount of water, wait awhile (something like 30 minutes or so after the water), then call back and let them know what was happening. I did that (well, I didn't drink all the water as I was getting sick) and when I called back the contractions were then every 3 minutes so she said to head over to the hospital. When I got there I was 4cm (and I was barely 1cm at the only internal I had, which was a few days prior), completely effaced, and admitted.
Oh, one thing to note, with that kid, her head was positioned poorly, so in between contractions I had steady, terrible back pain. If my husband took his hands off my lower back I felt like it was ripping apart. I never had that with the BH contractions so that was another big sign.
With my 2nd kid my water broke in the middle of the night, but I didn't start contracting for a couple of hours after that. When I did, they were all in the belly, no back pain at all, but way, way stronger than the BH contractions, to the point where I couldn't really stand or walk during them. Part of that was likely because my water already broke, so his head was sitting on my cervix with no cushioning. But the nice bonus was that in between contractions, zero pain. None of that back pain crap I had with my 1st.
In his case though, the contractions started very irregular around 5am (2.5 hours after my water broke), so I just stayed in my bed. Then by 6:30 they were regular and picked up FAST. By 8:30am they were loooong contractions (though I never timed how long) and every 2 minutes. So the relief in between was very short lived, but very welcomed nonetheless.
So both experiences were quite different from each other, but each time there was no mistaking that that was it.
I hope your appt today shows some progress for you!
Patsy - I am going to test out your links and see if they worked for my kids. I know in the past I tried them (though different websites I think) and had mixed results too.
Oh, and that heartbeat thing, my SIL was a firm believer in that. She didn't find out the genders of any of her kids, so she used the heartbeat to guess. It was higher with her 1st and that was a girl, lower with the 2nd and he was a boy, then came the 3rd. Heartrate was identical to her son's so she had no doubt in her mind that this baby was a boy. Till SHE came out! She was blown away.
I never knew the heart rates with any of my kids, but I saw this one's on the ultrasound this week and it was 159. Is that considered high or low? I know she's a girl (or so they tell me anyway...), but have no idea what the 'high' and 'low' heart rate numbers are.
I'm taking my kids out to grab breakfast on our way to school since we've already been up 2 hours. Ugh. I know in the grand scheme of things this is nothing, but yesterday my car decided to break on my way home from taking the kids to school. I was making a turn and all of a sudden there was a really bad, bad noise like a grinding noise, and I could barely turn the car. Luckily I was 2 blocks from my house so I sort of coasted back. Then had to walk to the school to volunteer in my son's class and go on a field trip with my daughter's class. That was fine, I planned on walking anyway, but not in such haste. Then we took the Metro for the field trip so more walking. Got back and both kids had afterschool classes, so I had 1.5 hours to kill, so I walk to Starbucks with a friend. Went back to the school at 3:45 and sat in the lobby, to realize it was the first time I sat down since 10:15am and my body definitely felt it! A friend drove the kids and I home and someone came to tow my car to the dealer (as it's in warranty).
I then spent the rest of the night contracting regularly, likely from all the walking, and with some nice back pain. So I slept horribly and then had to get up to take my husband to work at 5:30am so I have his car for the day. We can walk to school, but my daughter has dance this afternoon and it's not walkable or metro accessible. This could not have happened at a better time and I am sure they will take ages to repair it.
I was nervous about using it because I don't want to mistakenly do something that will hurt the baby. I know that may sound silly, but I know there are certain things that shouldn't be done, you know what I mean? I have prenatal yoga DVD and I can tell how the poses are modified compared to my regular yoga.
Hula hoop used to be my favorite, but last night it started hurting a little so I didn't do that again. I did the step aerobics a few times and heading the soccer ball and some of the yoga but some of the balance ones are getting tricky!
Welcome lilianddomsmom 
