38 week OB appointment

I had my 38 week appointment this morning even though I'm 2 days shy of 38 weeks. Dr. J is out this week so I saw a nurse practitioner, different one than last time. She had a different style, not so much with the numbers and statistics... she didn't tell me a fundal height measurement, baby heart rate, nor a baby head station, but whatevs. None of it's all that crucial at this point as long as they tell me everything looks good, which it does.

I had a few pretty bad contractions last night so I was hoping for a little more progress in the cervical department, but it sounded like everything is the same as last week. The NP said she would say I'm 70% effaced, but I think that's probably just a difference of personal guesstimation rather than actual regression from what Dr. J found.

I told her about my contractions and she said that's a good thing, should be helping my cervix efface. They felt like bad menstrual cramps - which I usually get pretty bad - only they came in waves instead of continual pain. Just three or four random ones with no pattern to them, but pretty painful.

The NP also remarked on the fact that once again I didn't gain any weight, saying, "You didn't go wild on Christmas! You could have, you know." Well, we didn't have a Christmas dinner, but we're having it tomorrow, so maybe I can still stock up on some apple pie. But I actually haven't been nearly as hungry as usual lately... I've even been skipping lunch some days and just eating a few snacks throughout the afternoon.

When she did my internal she said she thought she could feel hair - !! - and that the head feels a little "grainy" when the baby has hair (yes, they can actually feel my baby's head from inside my vag, how weird is that). I said with surprise that we were guessing he'd be bald... so she backpedaled, "Well, if he has hair, remember I said that, but if he doesn't, forget it!" Ha. And she also commented "another week and you could have this baby!" I was a little confused by what she meant, like, she thinks I'll have him in a week or... ? Because I can safely have him now, if that's what she was getting at. Who knows.

Oh, and there was also this - she asked if my doctor and I have talked about induction yet. I thought that was a little odd given that I'm barely 38 weeks... but I don't know, maybe that's a standard question? I just said no, it hasn't come up, and she was like "Oh, just going to go with it and see what happens, huh!" Weird.

So, yeah. Pretty unexciting but there you have it.