late pregnancy

Since the other kids were all early, we had been expecting Luke to make his big entrance sometime during the last week of October. We had been joking about him coming on Halloween and about him being a little pumpkin.
The entire pregnancy I had been feeling more Braxton Hicks contractions and after about 32 weeks, they were getting more intense and I just had this feeling that I was getting closer but I still didn't think I would deliver until 37 weeks.
Then at my 34 week appointment, I was already starting to thin, I stopped gaining weight, and I was 2-3 cm dilated. The doctor didn't seem too worried about it because he said that women can start dilating weeks before labor and this was my fourth pregnancy. But he did tell me that if I was any more dilated that he would have to tell me to "hire a babysitter and rest." Well, since I was only 34 weeks and still wanted to go 3 more weeks before I delivered, Christopher decided that I needed to start trying to rest so I could postpone the delivery. Rest started on Monday. I would take care of the kids as restfully as possible: movies, basement and Daddy-made dinners. Tuesday I had to get the kids ready and take Shaylee to class but I was still trying to sit and rest while the kids played. That day I just felt different. About 5:00 I started noticing that my contractions were getting more regular but were not very intense, but just to make sure I started tracking them. They were about five minutes apart but I figured that that had to just be my mind leading things because it was still so early (35 weeks) and they were not very intense.
Kept tracking them through dinner and rested afterwards when they started getting more and more intense and I started to realize that this really may be it. I think I was in denial a bit. Finally, they were consistently four minutes apart and I told the kids and Christopher that we needed to get our things packed.
I guess I was acting too calm because Christopher was not rushing as fast as I thought he would. Finally we dropped the kids off and the contractions were now 3 minutes apart.
Next post- arrival at hospital