This is what happened to me when I threatened PTL at 32 weeks, and that was *without* any suspicion that my waters were broken.

A speculum exam was done to check out my cervix, and to check for pooling of fluid. Had there been fluid, they would have done a swab to check if it was amniotic fluid.

There wasn't any fluid, but regardless, I was given two shots of dexamathasone to mature the baby's lungs just in case, I was given a drug (can't remember what it is called, starts with "n" and is a tocolytic, that is, it stops contractions) and given pain relief. I stayed in hospital for 24 hours while they made sure it was "just" an irritable uterus and baby wasn't making an early entrance. (He actually arrived a day after my due date.)

That was what should happen. That's what you should insist on happening. You aren't being a nuisance. The main thing to establish is that your cervix isn't opening yet (as a primip, it shouldn't be, different for us grand multis LOL) and that your membranes are intact, and that you are not having contractions that are a) regular and strong enough to make a difference to your cervix and b) distressing the baby. That's what you want to ask about: are these contractions and cramps indicating cervical change, and are my membranes intact? If they can assure you that these things are okay (and tell you how they know these things), then really you just need to rest, take some raspberry leaf tea and do what you need to feel comfortable. Then ask them for the threshhold of what you should be concerned about and when you should go to the hospital - how far apart for contractions, etc, fluid loss, that kind of thing. Then, when you experience those things, GO IN, regardless of how silly you feel. They aren't just there to deliver babies, they are there to support pregnant women.

(With one of my prior pregnancies, I had a hindwater leak at 36 weeks that healed up and that baby was born at 40+1 also.)