38 weeks

This week's doctors appointment was on December 10th when I was 37 weeks 5 days.  The doctor did a cervical exam and said I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! While I knew this didn't mean baby boy would be coming immediately, it is very exciting to hear my body is preparing for labor. Baby boy was in a -3 station meaning that he was in fact engaged, but not too low in the pelvis.  She also mentioned that my cervix was posterior and all of this was very normal for my gestation progress with my first child. I'm hoping my next exam will show some further progress since some women can walk around slightly dilated for weeks.  Now that we're so close I'm going to try to do some extra walking and convince Baby boy that he should come now!  With the full moon coming up on Wednesday the lunar pull may an effect too... or so they say.  I know this gross, but I'm thinking I may have been starting to lose my mucus plug little by little.  This is my first time so its hard for me to tell for sure, but it seems like it may be the case.  Its similar to my contractions confusion, I don't know if I've felt any Braxton Hicks contractions or not because I don't really know exactly what contractions really feel like.  I'm going with I probably have felt them, but nothing too intense and certainly nothing regular. I know that eventually these things will become very obvious, we'll see how far into labor I need to get for them to become obvious.

We have nearly everything we (think) we need. Everyday we all these boxes, its crazy. The big stuff is put together and set up, ready to go.  I got all the thank you cards out so now I can finally finish organizing the nursery! We went to a Newborn Care & Safety class as well.  I feel like there wasn't tons of new information at this point, which I guess is a good sign considering Baby boy could have already been here by now and will arrive at any moment so I better know my stuff!

My belly button is nearly flat but not quite.  I have stretch marks but I think they'll disappear with time. I'm still just easily tired and experiencing heartburn.  My waddle is causing my groin muscles to be a little sore too. So far I'm up 14 pounds which is on track with the doctor's wishes.  Hopefully after delivery I'll drop  a bunch of it considering the doctor thinks Baby boy is 7 lbs, plus the placenta, amniotic fluid, etc.  It doesn't really mater as long as baby boy is healthy.