I’m currently 37w5d pregnant and I’m very uncomfortable. 3 days ago, I went to the hospital because I started to have contractions, and I felt as though my water was slowly trickling. Being a first time mom, I wanted to get checked to see if I was going into labor. My fiancé and I finally made it to the hospital (we live a little far), and after an hour of waiting, I finally get a room in labor and delivery. The OB who happened to be on call came in and checked the fluid to see if it was amniotic fluid, then he checked to see if I was dilated. When he did the pelvic exam to see if I was dilated, I squeezed my eyes shut and tensed so hard because it hurt. I spotted the next day and I’ve been sore ever since. My body was going into “false labor” and I’m only 2cm dilated, so I got sent home. I’m getting anxiety because after that, how am I supposed to be confident going into labor if 2 fingers hurt me so bad? How am I supposed to endure a child’s head coming through if I can barely handle a pelvic exam? I need words of advice please, and maybe some of your experiences would help me. I’m for sure getting the epidural now, and I wasn’t nervous before but I’m a little nervous now. Though everyone’s was different, how was your labor? Do you have any words of advice for me?