First time mom

Question for you guys. I woke up at 3am this morning to contractions. I caved and went in to be monitored around 10am and I have nice consistent contractions from 10am-5pm on the monitor but they ended up discharging me because they weren’t strong enough or close enough together. I’m 36 weeks. They haven’t checked my cervix yet so I have no idea if I’m dilated any, and I’m just feeling super discouraged. Anyone else experience this, and how long did it take for your labor to actually kick off once contractions started? Haven’t lost my mucous plug, it’s literally just the contractions right now. I don’t want this to go on for another 4 weeks, I’m miserable. 🙁