Getting extremely frustrated and detered by how my signs of labor are going.

I'm 38 weeks (first pregnancy) and my baby's head has been in the engaged position for about a week now and just two or three days ago I found out that I am already dilated to 1 centimeter, I have also lost my mucus plug. The day my OB told me that she (my baby) was in the engaged position, that it could be any minute, hour, or day that she comes into this world. Yet nothing has really happened except for contractions lasting about 4 minutes, and being 2-4 minutes apart (and that has been going on for a week now) and extreme pressure on my vagina and rectum. I have been into the hospital 2 or 3 times last week and they look at me like I'm an idiot, and blow off what I say is going on. And these times that I have gone in has been on advisement from my OB! It's the same thing every time, go in, get undressed, give them a urin sample, get in the gown, get hooked up, and then wait.

My baby's heart beat is perfect, but when I'm having contractions the monitor isn't picking it up, and when I mention it to the nurse they look at me like "uh huh" and explain that where they have the monitor set is the perfect placing because it can check the whole uterus for the contraction and what I might be feeling is just a small thing. And after everything, they procceed to tell me that everything I'm feeling is normal, that I should just go home and wait because this happens sometimes two weeks before I actually go into labor, and that they don't want me to come back unless I'm encapable of moving (due to a contraction), or if my water breaks, and that I, and I quote, "will know" when I go into into labor. None of the nurses or staff have really been reassuring either, they always label me as "the mom-to-be who doesn't seem to know much" and never really try to listen to me, or my support people (My husband and mother). And so far almost every nurse that I have seen while being checked, has compared me to their own pregnancy, which I find completely unprofessional. With those statements being made by the Birthing Center staff, and being treated fairly poorly, I am almost to my witts end.
To add on a side note, in the discharge papers, it states that if I feel pressure in the vagina and rectum, if my baby hasn't had at least 4 fetal movements in the past hour, or if I have regular contractions that get stronger no matter what position I'm in or if I'm walking or not, that I need to go back to the hospital to be checked. (And each time I have called my OB or the birthing center and have been told to come in, only to be sent home)

All of this frustrates me because from what I have found out on my own, from talking to other women who have children, and from the childbirth class I took, some of the statements that each of the nurses/staff have made, are not completely true! Not every woman's water breaks when she goes into labor, some have to have it broken for them. Not every woman "knows" when she goes into labor, I have some close friends who were to the point of calling their own doctor or MW a liar because they did not believe they were in labor, until they were proven to be in labor. And to add, not every woman is bent over in agony during a contraction, some have a high pain tollerance and do not show pain easily.

So now I'm looking to other mothers on the internet to seek advice, explainations, and some reassurence. Because like I said earlier, these experiences have not been the best and have detered me a bit. Almost to the point to where I'm not even sure if I want to go through these last stages again. I have become so doubtful (thanks to these experiences), that I'm not sure what to think when I get pressure, contractions, or less fetal movements. It's like "Well am I in labor or not?" because each time we (my husband, mother, and myself) check, my symptoms match being labor perfectly. They have matched the false labor signs up till recently.