Confusion after getting a shot to stop contractions?

Hi there again. I hope that someone can be of some help. I am 35 weeks pregnant and yesterday I started having contractions. They were between 5-7 minutes at first for about two hours so we went to the hospital at the direction of our doctor. After they put me on the monitors they were between 2-3 minutes apart for about 7 more hours... so 9 hours total of constant contractions. The pain was not terrible, but they certainly weren't comfortable, and I had pain in my back too. They felt like menstrual pains and there was a lot of pressure and tightness. Because the contractions weren't causing me to dilate much (only 1 cm), they went ahead and gave me a shot and some pills to stop the contractions. The doctor said that they were just braxton hicks because there was no progression with the dilation, but everything I read describing braxton hicks says that there is no regularity and they should go away on their own. They are also described as not being painful, and mine definitely were increasing in intensity and frequency over time. I was having way more than four in an hour. I'm just confused, because if what I was going through was simply braxton hicks, and we spent all that time in the hospital, it gives me a lot of anxiety about real labor and whether or not I'm going to have a clue when I'm actually in it. I'm really worried about the risk of going to the hospital again when we aren't actually in labor. Is there anything I can do if this happens again? Drinking water at home and changing positions, etc didn't help to stop the contractions. If we have it with that intensity again, can we just ask for some pitocin and for the chance to just go through with labor? Has anyone else experienced this? I am a first time mom, so I'm not asking these things to sound selfish about the labor process, because I am very grateful that my son is okay and not having to spend time in the NICU. But I have a lot of anxiety now about labor and could really use some advice from people who are more experienced than me. I really appreciate your help :)