Everyone is having babies and i'm just sitting here waiting! (Questions, advice needed)

Woo hoo! 39 weeks and your little one will be here soon! You are about to have a lifechanging experience... Remember that your body knows what it is doing, it got you this far and it knows how to get the baby (big or small) into your arms. The pain is relative but temporary - it's designed to tell you to get to a safe place and focus on the task at hand. Use it! Trust yourself and your Dr.s. Here are a couple of tracks that might help you to relax a bit, a bit cheesy, but I have found them to help me sleep, practice breathing and positive visualization (particularly the rainbow relaxation). https://archive.org/details/HypnoBirthing

For postpardum healing, I have heard that witch hazel on sanitary pads frozen are amazing for any swelling or tears. You are going to be great! You can do mama!

Is inducing worse?

Depends on what you mean by worse.

Is it more dangerous? Sure, if you are having a VBAC with an improper use of induction. Otherwise? Probably not. I mean everything has a risk...

Is it more likely to end up in a c-section? Maybe. Maybe not. There are ways to lower that risk, like knowing if your bishops score is good for induction, and not allowing them to push c-section on you for "being in labor too long" if you and baby are both doing fine (water broken too long may be another story. I highly suggest not letting them break your water to induce if you don't want a c-section as that puts you on a timer.)

Is it going to hurt more? Very likely. It makes the contractions stronger sooner than natural labor does. Making it hurt more for longer for most women which can also become exhausting. If you want to do it without pain meds it may still be possible (I did, and know many women who have). If you don't care if you use pain meds... big deal on this one right?

Also keep in mind ultrasound estimates arent always right and can be very off (they told me my son would be 9 pounds the day before he was born, he was just over 7). As well, at this point your baby only gains about half a pound a week if that.

And of course there is always the fact that fat squishes and bone doesnt. Id be worried more about their bone length and head size, not how much they weigh.

I've gone naturally twice, been fully induced three times, and left the hospital after a failed induction and gone into labor on my own. Were any of them "worse" than the others? No, not really. I do delay induction until there is some dilation and effacement going on, just to make things easier on me, and I make it clear before we start induction that they are not to break my water until we are close to the end, and if it fails, I'm going home, they aren't just going to start escalating treatments on me. That's just my own personal way of avoiding ending up with a Csection. And you do have control over those things, especially if you talk to your doctor honestly before the induction date.

Other than that, I've always found my inductions easier than just sitting around and waiting for baby to make an appearance whenever. I've been told that Pitocin contractions are hell compared to natural ones, but I actually prefer the induction, and was induced with Pitocin and not used any pain meds twice now, and I might end up doing it again this time. I haven't made up my mind yet. My induced children were no less healthy than the ones that came on their own, and my second induction was the easiest labor and recovery ever. So, I dont think there is any reason to consider an induction worse than a spontaneous labor.

My mom had 2 babies entirely naturally, one c-section, and one inducted. She honestly said the inducted was better because, for her, it progressed more quickly than the 2 natural births did. Either way, though, do not get yourself worked up! Evrything will be fine, and you stressing will not make it any better. Just calm down and try to relax, you guys can do this!