[development] hook_form() and multistep

Hello All, I'm attempting to make a multistep node submission form in D5 All the examples using #multistep I find assume the form is being rendered by drupal_render_form(), which passes the form values as the 2nd argument. These form values can contain the step number that is used to decide which form fields to render, and what to validate/submit. In my case, however, it's a node submission form .. hook_form() is being used (not drupal_render_form()). hook_form() gets passed the node object, but not the form values. As a result, I'm not able to determine what step I'm on. I'm assuming it's possible to make a multistep node submission form. Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks! Ryan