37.5 Week Appt

This morning, the doctor’s office waiting room was only half full! There were a couple people ahead of me, but they were called back fairly quickly. So, the initial wait wasn’t that long. By 10:30, I had been called back to give the normal urine sample, weight, and blood pressure checked and had been asked to go back to the waiting room to wait for an exam room to open!
Again, the wait for a room wasn’t very long, but the wait for Dr. Shelley to come in was about the same. Dr. Shelley came in and let me know that the strep culture came back negative (so no antibiotics during delivery) and asked me if I was planning on getting a flu shot soon… I told her I was going this Friday. She just reminded me of the importance of protecting me and the baby with it, but that it was necessary to get it 2 weeks before she gets here.
She then measured and commented that we were all the way up there (I guess that’s normal/good). And the baby’s heartbeat sounded strong and steady (as usual) with the Doppler! I thought that she would check to see if my cervix had softened or if I had dilated any, but she said that she would check me next week. Before leaving, she asked had been having any contractions or cramping. I told her that I wasn’t sure about contractions (at least not anything painful yet), but yesterday I had a pretty bad cramp for about 20 seconds in my pelvic area. Dr. Shelley told me that was a good sign! She explained that small cramping is usually how the cervix ripens (softens), and especially with first babies, you want to feel small cramping in the lower abdomen area instead of the intense all-over contractions that don’t do much to soften the cervix. One more good thing she mentioned was that she thought the baby's head was down because her heart rate was found lower on my belly… to which I commented that I was pretty sure her rear was just under my ribs. She laughed because she experienced the same thing, with kicking and movement on the right side of her body. We joked about sitting with our hand(s) resting just under our ribs for the majority of the day because of those movements and at least attempting to keep them under control!
But that was it. I have an appointment scheduled for next Thursday September 23 (the first day of fall and the next full moon) at the Anderson office (which is also at the hospital)! I would love to walk in and hear that I’ve dilated enough to be admitted and have the baby, but I’ll try to keep myself in reality and know that it’s not very likely! Until then, we continue to wait for Sweet Pea to arrive!