An interesting weekend

My brother graduated from high school this weekend-this is so crazy to me as he is the oldest of what I often think of as the "young family" (we have 7 kids in our family...the oldest 3 are close in age, then there is a gap between numbers 3 and 4...he is number 4). Combine that with my little sister being old enough to have a driver's license and...wow. Is this how parents feel when their kids get older? I don't know whether to be amused, terrified, or just plain feel ancient, especially when I think back to changing their diapers, playing "airplane" to get them to eat their food, and chasing them in circles around the park.
Anyway, we spent most of Saturday helping with food preparation for the post-graduation party, cleaning for said party, and then going to the graduation and attending the post graduation party. It was a really fun day and we got to spend a lot of time with family, but man were we tired after! I don't know how my mom does this type of event planning on a regular basis...and she was going to an afterparty lock in type thing from 10-midnight (as a chaperone) after the regular party!
The graduation was nice-though it was a huge graduating class! Over 600...I've never been to a high school graduation that large. The ceremony took about 2 hours...it was in the college basketball arena (and they did legitimately need that much space). Thankfully, we were "assigned" to the side of the arena with cushioned seats-I am quite sure my pregnant self would not have enjoyed sitting on a typical bleacher-type seat for that length of time! And I was uncomfortable enough as it was-I was having fairly uncomfortable contractions every 5 minutes for most of the ceremony. I was debating what to do-they could have just been really uncomfortable Braxton-Hicks for all I know, since I've never had contractions before. We didn't have our car there, and I didn't really want to climb over tons of people, then climb a bunch of steps, so I elected to just wait and see what happened. Thankfully, they stopped after about an hour and a half. I kind of hope they weren't just Braxton-Hicks...they were strong enough to make me feel nauseous and Josh said my face was turning gray (under makeup! Awesome...) and my thought is, good grief, if those were just B-H contractions, will I be able to handle the real thing? This is the second time I've had pretty regular contractions (or what I'm assuming to be contractions...strong menstrual-like cramping accompanied by tightening of my entire uterus) for a prolonged period of time. The first time was last Thursday and was accompanied by a little spotting-it had us concerned enough to call the after hours number (of course it happened at night) and then be phone triaged by labor and delivery. Both times, they have stopped on their own, but it does have me a little concerned for several reasons. First, I'm only 34 weeks, and while Ben would not be a micro-preemie if he came now, it would really be good for him to cook for at least a few more weeks. Secondly, I'm not sure how to judge right now when to be concerned/call someone for input and when I'm just having normal symptoms. Do I just wait to see what happens (which is what we've done so far)? What happens if I wait too long? How long is too long? I don't want to be a "frequent flyer" who's always calling the doctor's office or running in for emergency checks, but I also don't want to wait too long if there is something wrong that needs to be addressed. Ah, the conundrums of parenthood...
Any input from any of you who have had babies (or work/have worked in the baby-birthing industry) would be much appreciated!
Anyway, that's about all the excitement around here for now. I've started having some foot swelling and other typical 3rd trimester symptoms, and I have several coworkers who exclaim, "You're still here!" every time they see me. I'm not sure if they are just sympathizing with my rotund state, or if they think I look a lot bigger/further along than I actually am. I'm carrying this kid pretty low (and I think he's dropping more), so it could easily be either I suppose. So there you have it...sorry those of you who don't want to read about pregnancy stuff all the time-but that's the biggest thing (haha) that's going on with us right now!