Some people only feel them as tightenings. But me, sometimes they felt almost as bad as labor. I twice had a session of them for 3 or so hours and they were really painful and becoming regular and i was only a week off my due date, so i thought it was the real deal. But no, not a chance. So i think it's different from person to person and also how people handle pain is differnt too. Since it's your third i'd say you could probably feel them more because your body has done it before, so know what it's doing better, if you know what I mean?