Acupunture & Contractions

I can definitely tell I'm in the final stretch...just by the number of activities that I'm supposed to be doing right about now.

First, I started the perineum stretching with the lovely Epi-no last week and should be continuing that twice a day right up to the end.
The initial runs with this here apparatus created quite the frustration since it definitely was NOT working as described in the instructions...after discussing said apparatus with a couple other pregnant mommas from my water class, I determined that we're ALL having the same problem - it's not just me being stupid. Whew!
Today was also my first session of pregnancy acupunture. The midwife who led my parenting class highly recommended it and went so far as to say it shortens labor by up to 2 hours. My OB agreed that it's not a stupid idea, so off I went. Had my first session this evening - 6 needles in my legs below the knee. Didn't hurt at all and while the needles were doing their thing, I got to relax in one of the delivery rooms for a half an hour while they did another non-stress test (recording heart sounds & contractions).
The big news of the day? THERE WERE CONTRACTIONS THIS TIME!! Not that I felt them, but the machine recorded them...is this hopefully a sign that I'm approaching the end???
I'm also not above all the home-remedies to speed up the process (well, I'm not crazy enough to do the castor oil but I'll try all the ones that aren't dangerous to me or the baby). Ran a bunch o' errands today and thus did a lot o' walking, which is supposed to help move things along. And I'm getting ready to eat a whole bunch of pineapple...that's what did it for my gal Lisa so it's worth a shot. (I figure she got all the juice outta that trick though...) The epi-no & the acupuncture can apparently also induce contractions (that's why I'm not supposed to start with either until after 37 weeks - when I'm "term"). If we get lucky, something will work.
I'm impatient! I'm ready to meet mah BeBe Schnegg!!