Another Good Visit (Week 38-1/2)

I’m still feeling well overall. My hips seem to be hurting less and I’m feeling more cramps and sharp pains in the stomach & lower abdomen. All is normal though and is just part of the process. I’m feeling more weight and pressure too but that is to be expected at this point as well.

Here are the stats of today’s visit:

Baby’s heartbeat: 144
My belly measurement: 39cm (was 37cm last week – so a bit of a growth spurt over the past week!)
I’m dilated to 2cm (progress from 1-1/2cm from last week)
Effaced (dropped) to 80% (progress from 70% from last week)
I’ve gained 3lbs (so I guess I made up for the 2-1/2 lost last week - sounds like the baby might be contributing to some of that : )
My blood pressure was excellent and still no swelling!

My next visit is next Wednesday, 10/29. I also have one scheduled for my actual due date 11/3. That visit we’ll also do an ultrasound to make sure the baby’s doing well and also to check his/her size. She did recommend one more thing and that is to go ahead and pick a date and schedule for induction. This doesn’t mean I’m going to have to be induced, but is more of a proactive approach to the ‘what if I go over’ scenario. She said they sometimes book up to 2 weeks in advance and it would be better for me to have it scheduled and ready than to be at 40+ weeks and unable to do anything for another week or two. So…we’ll be scheduling that soon too. She did say I was a good candidate for induction if I had to resort to that, but I really don’t feel like I will go that long. We’ll see!