Hello, I am 37 weeks along and yesterday morning started having pretty strong contractions. They were bearable and not wanting to go to the hospital early I toughed through them. Around 8pm that day they were starting to get so hard and frequent I was hunched over the desk calling my husband, telling him to come home from work. I timed contractions with him until about 11pm, and my contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart and very painful, so off we went to the hospital. Unfortunately after 2 hours of painful contractions in the hospital I was still only at 2cm (the same as when I came in 2 hours earlier), so they gave me a shot of demerol and sent me home, not really giving me a cue on if I should come back and when. Six hours later (i barely slept) my contractions are there but seem to be weakened a bit. Is it possible that braxton hicks could be so painful and frequent? I'm a little confused about what's happening and why i'm getting sent home in pain? What do you guys think?