Hi Garreth,
nice to see you here...another lurker striving for enlightenment. since noone jumped in to answer you right away i thought that i would give you my two cents as a non attainer :-)
first it sounds as though you have a good basis and certainly are dedicating a good amount of time to your practice, which is excellent and perhaps the most important thing.
secondly, there will be all sorts of energetic phenomena which will start to come up during your sits. they can range from being fun and exciting and interesting to "i can't sit another second like this" kind of thing. i'm sure you know what to do when they come up...note them and keep going, if you are doing noting practice. are you doing noting practice?
your question about whether what you experienced 1st jhana or not is beyond my capabilities to answer with your description. it may well have been. if you haven't read IanAnd's sticky thread on the jhanas and are interested in persuing them, read that first. one thing that surprised me when i first had clear knowledge that i had attained the different jhanic states was that i had been in them many times during my sits but just didn't have the discerment or knowleged to place them in the ordered way that they are presented. the states were, for me, were surprisingly "normal". excellent to be sure, but i had anticipated a much more of a trumpets and angels kind of experience. they are really just a calming and and a further calming and follow very precisely the descriptions of them.
my advice would be to simply keep practicing. set stream entry as your goal and note your ass off. get your butt into a retreat setting, if possible, and go for that.
alles gute!
