Contractions, dilating.....pardon me ??!!

I have to say that even now when I look back on everything, and everything that was about to happen, I NEVER in a million years thought we were about to be faced with delivering a VERY preterm baby.
We ended back at our local hospital, and decided to wait it out this time. I mean, I figured it was something that definitely needed to be addressed, BUT that they would send me on my way after and tell me to put my feet up. An hour later, I was finally shown to an exam room while we waited for a doctor and nurse to come and exam me. The pain over the last hour in the waiting room, and up until now, was definitely intensifying, but again, having that I had never had a baby before, I didn't know what it was. They asked me to explain where it hurt, how long the pain was lasting......I could tell by their tone and cryptic conversations that this was serious. I was asked to undress, and there I had what was one of the first of many internal exams to come....I can laugh now, because all of my girlfriends that had had babies before me, had already warned me that whatever dignity you had going in to have a baby, was suddenly non existent. I have to say in my case this was never more true !!! The doctor and nurse left the room shortly thereafter, leaving Dave & I to stare at each other in disbelief...what the hell was happening ?? He tried so hard to comfort me, but I know he must have been dying on the inside too.
What seemed like an eternity later, the doctor and nurse came back to see us....what was happening was no longer a mystery, this baby was coming !!! The pain was the start of contractions, and upon examination, I was already 3cm dilated !!! Isn't that process supposed to take HOURS and at 40 weeks !?!? They had been on the phone with the hospital in London which was home to an excellent perinatal unit and more importantly a Level 3 NICU, which we were going to need if Baby P persisted !!! Long story short, they were finally able to find a spot for me there ( otherwise, we were perhaps looking at Detroit ) and faster than we could make any phone calls, or pack any bags, I was on my way, in an ambulance.....with my poor husband trying to keep up in the car behind us....was this really happening ?!?!