Not sharing my birthday

What I got for my 31st birthday? An internal exam! Haha!! Had my checkup with the midwives today and decided to let them go ahead and check out my progress. Of course it gives you absolutely no clue as to when you'll go into labor, since you can go from 0 to 60 in one day, or you can be walking around dilated 5cm for weeks, but it can be helpful to know if you've started or if you're sealed up tight and need to try some extra tricks to get going! So verdict is that I'm about 30% effaced and 1cm dilated. Not great, but definitely better than nothing! Last night Ryoji and I watched a movie, and during the entire two hours I was having a painless contraction about every 5 minutes. Was really crazy! We both thought labor was starting and they would gradually get more painful. But, alas, we went to bed and NADA. But the midwife thinks maybe they'll continue and I'll efface and dilate more each day until BOOM I'm ready to go. Here's hoping! She recommended some acupuncturists, apparently they can have a good chance of getting your labor started, and some insurances cover it, so I may give that a try...