Big hugs to you Mother Goose. Your MIL sounds like an *interesting* person... Try deflect deflect deflect! And go the answering machine!
Cramping is so scary in pregnancy.. In fact any sensation below the waist is I reckon! The good thing is that usually it is not a sign of awful things to come but rather the opposite! The stretching the muscles that support the uterus have to do causes a lot of the sensations. Gas in pregnancy caused by the extra progesterone can be really painful too. With ALL of my pregnancies I have felt like I am about to get my period at any minute. I usually feel like that on and off until I reach 12 -14 weeks. Just like most things these feelings in isolation probably are the things we have all mentioned. Just like bleeding in pregnancy. That is even scarier but in isolation without any pain is often not spelling disaster.

I truly understand how worrying those feelings are. It's awful but I really think it sounds okay.

Big hugs