How do I know when contractions are BH contractions and when they're the real thing?

[StealthPolarBear]

Apologies as I bet this has been done.
I'm 30 weeks pregnant and have just had what I assume to be my first Braxton Hicks contraction. I don't remember having them this early on last time. I'm not panicking but I would like to know how you tell! I wouldn't say it was painful (am at work and no-one noticed) but it wasn't painless either - similar to how I remember the early contractions being last time.
is the only way to tell to see if you have more and they become more painful?

If you get up and walk around when you next feel it- it it goes away it's BH's, if it gets worse, it's a proper contraction.

if it goes away

More or less. You will know when it happens - even if the early "real" contractions aren't more painful than BH, they tend to be in a series rather than odd one off events, and gradually (in my case first time at least, very gradually) become more painful and more frequent.

Just seen that this is dc2. I also had BH contractions much earlier with dc2, and even earlier still (like 23 weeks ish) with this one. With ds (dc2) I just programmed myself almost to completely ignore what I could, and when I couldn't ignore the pain any more, that was when I believed I was in labour (did this because with dd I was on red alert from the first tightening and got rather bored of it all by the time I was even in established labour).

hmm
going to be doing a lot of short walks from my desk in the next few weeks
Walking around helped me manage my real contractions - not sure if they felt better or it was just psychological
Thanks

lol pooka - keep having more DCs and before you know it you'll be having BHs before you conceive
You're probably right about ignoring - I eft it as long as possible last time and was pleased with the way it went, but am getting a bit nervous as I'm working up to 38 weeks (which I think will actually be 39 weeks...)