false water breaking today

Well, today has been interesting.  I woke up suddenly at 6:30 and felt like I had started my period.  (I'm 38 weeks & 5 days today.)  I went to the bathroom and my undies were soaked.  I called out for my husband & told him what was going on & he asked if it was my water breaking & I said I didn't know but that's what it looks like.  (I even did the sniff test several times & it didn't smell like urine.)

So I changed undies & put on a pad and laid down and more fluid kept coming.  I got up and ate breakfast & we put the final touches on our hospital bags...just in case.  I went through 2 pads in about 2.5 hours.  

I called my doc's office around 9:30 (I didn't want to call earlier b/c the contractions that I was having weren't bad...they felt like just my normal BH ones...& didn't want it to be the real thing & get there & then be put on pit to get things going, etc.)  When I called they said to come in & get checked out and to bring our bags.  

We got there...and long story short....after 4 nurses & 2 midwives checking me out...and running 3 tests...everything came back negative for amniotic fluid.  I was still leaking fluid...but they said it was vaginal fluid.  I was so surprised.  One nurse made mention that it could have been another bag of something...like a pre-something...but I wasn't sure what she was talking about.  

It was a mixed bag of emotions for my husband & I b/c I was still at 1cm dilated (another surprise) & if it was the real thing they would have probably had to start me on pit to get things going...and we didn't want that.  And it was hard b/c we thought this might be the real thing and might be meeting our son today.  

And since leaving the hospital close to 1pm...I have been having bleeding (which I'm chalking up to having 2 internals done) and more contractions & fluid leaking & back ache & cramping.  It's crazy having all these things going on & knowing..."hey, it's still not time".  

I did tell the nurse that having this fluid leak makes it hard to know if in the future my water really does break...if it's the real thing or not and whether to come in.  She was so sympathetic with that & agreed with me.  I told my H that not until things get progressively more painful....whether that's today or the end of this week or next...I don't want to go back to OB triage.   It's hard to figure some of these things out.  We both agreed though to not take any chances (& the nurse encouraged us in this too)...and if things look like this again...to just come in.  I just don't want to be "that girl" that comes in for little things.  Make sense?  

Anyways....just an interesting day.  I wanted to share this with you guys in case any other ladies have experienced this or might experience it in the future.  And...can you believe tomorrow is August?!?!  Craziness!