whats with the nipple?

38 1/2 weeks preggo with my first. 2cm dilated, lost the mucus plug weeks ago. havent had any sign of milk leakage or anything. past two weeks my nipples have been just as sensitive as they have been in the first trimester. tonight, i was sitting down and checked my nipples. usually i have something (honestly dont know what it is, i always thought of it as dirt) on my nipple. kind of like a scab on my nipples. i pick them off before a shower every night. while doing this, my nipples get to be so big that they take up mainly my entire areola. never happenes before. i go to the other and the same happened. i squeezed both just in case it was premature milk building up...nothing. like...wtf