Bad contractions that went away?????

Is it normal to have contractions that increase in frequency and strength (2-5 minutes apart lasting around a minute) and then they die down? Yesterday I was contracting all day, it slowly got worse by the hour, eventually I was in enough pain to make me cry so I went to the hospital (about 20 hours since my contractions started), they said I was only 1 cm, (nothing changed from my last visit two days before) and 75% effaced, I had been bleeding all the day before and into yesterday. Pretty sure I lost my mucus plug because the blood was red brown with mucus discharge. I lost chunks of mucus on the toilet paper, in the toilet, in the shower and in my panty liner. Over the next 3 hours of being monitored, the contractions died down but I was still having one every so often. They gave me meds to take the edge off the contractions and sent me home. Is it normal for them to just stop almost all together? I’m so frustrated and discouraged. 39w4d today, still having the occasional contraction. Am I not in early labor?