False Labor - It's Not Just for First Time Moms

So.......here we are 15 days to go! We had a fun Friday this weekend. I woke up Friday morning not feeling so great - just really draggy and a little nauseous but let's face it, I am 9 1/2 month pregnant and have had a cold for 6 weeks so I never really wake up feeling great. My mom stayed with me a couple of days last week b/c Chris had his regional golf tournament in Waco and we wanted to be prepared in case Ellie arrived in the middle of the night and thankfully she was taking Chloe to Ms. Leigh's so I had a little extra time to get myself together and go to work. So, I get to work, still not feeling so good - extremely hot, nauseous and I start having some contractions. I go to the bathroom and pass my mucous plug (sorry if that's TMI). Then my contractions become a little more frequent, and I decide I need to go home. Nothing is done without drama in an school with 75 women employees to make a long story short, one of our fabulous secretaries decides to drive me home and our equally fab nurse follows us - mom is at home b/c she was off for the day and was running some errands for me (fab mom too! ). Unfortunately, I also can't stop crying at this point - no idea why - it wasn't from pain - just hormones I guess. My kids were cheering as I left with my "entourage" - , they thought I was having the baby and were SO excited!
So, I get home, lay down, and the contractions start getting stronger, longer and closer together. I'm trying to decide if I should ask Chris to come home - I really don't want him leaving his team for false labor. After a while of the stronger, longer contractions, I decide he needs to be on the way.
Chris makes it home around 12:00 and I'm having contraction about 2-3 minutes apart lasting about 60-75 seconds. This goes on for about an hour and a half and I call the dr and they tell me to come to the hospital. We finish packing the bags, make arrangements for Chloe, etc.. and head on. At this point, my main worry is that this baby is going to come too fast for me to get drugs and that would not be good because I'm already in a lot of pain!
So, we get there, they send me to triage to decide if i really am in labor which totally makes me mad. I skipped this part last time b/c my water had already broken. They hook me up to all he monitors and check my cervix. I'm still contracting every 2-3 minutes, and I'm dilated to a 3 so the nurse decides that I'm "probably" in labor but says they are going to monitor me a while longer to make sure before they admit me. About 20 minutes later - no more contractions. I can't believe it - I've been having contractions since 8:00 in the morning and I get here and they totally stop. After we've been here about an hour, the nurse talks to the dr t update had and says they can break my water and get this show on the road or I can wait a couple of hours and see what happens and go home if nothing picks up. I decide not to have my water broken b/c I am only 37 1/2 weeks and if Ellie isn't ready, she isn't ready. So, I do a lot of walking around the hospital to see if that will help but nothing. I have maybe 2 or 3 contractions an hour for the next 3 hours. They check me again, I'm still at a 3. Everything looks fine with the baby and me so they send me home. I ask if I'll be back in a few hours, and they just say, could be or could be a couple of weeks!
So, now it's Sunday night and I've had no significant contractions since Friday. So, we wanted to make it to 38 weeks with this one and it looks like we will. The worst part is that now I have to go back to work tomorrow - yuck! I feel So silly b/c this is only supposed to happen to first time moms - right????????