Doctor Doctor!

Yesterday morning I woke up with a cramping sensation at the top of my ribcage and got a little excited and confused, as I expected such a sensation to happen much lower in my abdomen. When Morgan came home from a morning appointment we had to remind ourselves that if I was, in fact, showing signs of pre-labor that it could go on for weeks before anything major happened. Luckily we had an appointment with Triangle OBGYN at 1:50 so we knew we could get a clear answer.

The philosophy at Triangle is not to start checking you via vaginal exams until 39 weeks (unlike some doctors who start checking you weekly at 36 weeks). I agree wholeheartedly with this standard of care and having as few vaginal exams as possible for many reasons. However, yesterday due to my cramping the Dr. Grana did check me and I have to admit that I liked the feedback of knowing where I am in the process. She was very gentle and I did not feel like I was at any risk of ruptured membranes, etc which helped too. (I was actually expecting the exam to be much more uncomfortable than it was - but I think that it was a woman, Morgan was there and more importantly that we have been doing the perineal massage helped!)

Anyway, drum roll please, I am not dilated at all but my cervix is thinning and the baby is starting move move down in station. These are the perfect signs for 38 weeks! On one hand I have been anxiously expecting to have the baby a little early as so many of my first time mom friends have had that experience in the past year or so - but on the other hand I know that it is best for Thriller to stay inside me until he/she reaches term.

This is all well and good as my mother is snowed in and there is no way she could be here for the next week - which would be very sad! Maybe in addition to being warm inside Thriller knows he/she needs to wait for the artic storm to pass throguh the south so he/she can meet Grandmama.

Next week I'll be getting a massage that hits on some inducement points and I have started taking Evening Primrose on the advice of one of our midwifes to help make sure I don't go over term. Triangle will let me go 10 days (maybe a couple more) over 40 weeks - but I really hope we don't have to get to that point. (a) Thriller will be massive as he/she keeps gaining about a pound a week and (b) induction/intervention is definitely not in line with natural birthing.

In other Thriller news - there has been a lot of movement! The baby was all on my left side, head down, rear up (just the way they need to be!) but on Monday night he/she flipped over - so now they are still head down, rear up, but cradled on my right side. Thriller is so big that I could see this drastic movement (not to mention FEEL) through several layers of clothes and Morgan's XXL Carhartt hoodie (which is my current clothing option of preference). Crazy. Yesterday we went for a walk around Lake Johnson after the doctor's appt and I experienced 2 Braxton-Hicks contractions from the walk - they were about 14 minutes apart - so my body is getting ready! Hooray!