False alarm :)

We had a big false alarm yesterday. I thought my water had broke...got out of the shower and dried off and had some trickling of red clear water going down my leg. I wasn't for sure so I stood over a white towel while I dried my hair just to make sure I wasn't jumping the gun. Quite a bit more dripped out onto the towel. Sorry if that's too descriptive, but it clearly was something that appeared to be my water breaking. Since the books and doctors alike claim that it can do just about anything from drip to gush, I assumed that is what had happened. My doctor said no matter what, if my water breaks I have to get to the hospital ASAP...so that's what we did. I even had a doc appointment that I was supposed to go to but called and they said go straight to labor and delivery.
Anyway, long story a little shorter, I was having no contractions with this trickle that finally subsided at the hospital of course...so I wondered what was up. They checked me in, hooked me up to monitors, checked me out, and I was not dilated and just 50% effaced...and she said that was generous. I was having small contractions that were registering on the monitor, but I wasn't feeling them. She tested the fluid that was trickling and it proved NOT to be amniotic fluid. They really didn't know what it was, except that they think I had 2 membranes...and the "outer" membrane ruptured and dripped a little fluid but that my amniotic sac and true membrane had not ruptured. So they sent us home :( We had gone into the hospital about 8:30am and they didn't send us home until 2:30pm, so it took them awhile to determine that it was in fact a false alarm. Oh well, the count down continues....or do we count up from here since I'm now past due by 2 days?? After that experience, Scott and I were both exhausted...it was a bit like being told that there was going to be a Christmas, and then all of a sudden that Christmas got canceled this year try again.
Anyway, the update today is NOW I'm having contractions. They woke me up this morning at about 5:30 or so and have been pretty strong and pretty steady all morning. They are not super close together, about 20-30 min apart at this point...with some smaller ones that don't last but just a few seconds in between. I think we'll wait this time until they are consistently strong and are about 10 min apart before we head over there again...who knows how long that will actually take :) but I really don't want to hang out in the hospital all day and then get sent home again.
As of now, we'll just go about our day as normal as we can and see if they 1. continue to be this strong and 2. if they get closer together. We'll keep you updated.