Contractions - "real"? Yay or nay?

sarelewis

I've been having braxton hicks (and fairly strong ones at that) for a couple months. Over the last week I've had more "real" feeling contractions (back pain, crampy, hard stomach) and even more since last evening when I started having an upset stomach. Still having the sour stomach this morning. I was also dilated to a 2 last Thursday. 

My question is, if I'm up and about, moving, etc I have more and stronger contractions quite close together. When I lay down they even out to one or two an hour. What is going on? And should I continue to do laundry, move around, etc in hopes of progressing? Or will that not matter?