40 weeks and 4 days

Here I am at 38 weeks and 42 weeks & 3 days, respectively:

Today I am 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon – this should be an interesting visit. We’ll check my progress and discuss an induction date. I’m really hoping I won’t need to be induced. In fact, I’ve been having some very mild contractions this morning … I’ve never had morning contractions before. And these are different – it feels like my whole stomach is steadily inflating, starting way down low and moving upward. It’s hard to tell what I’m experiencing when I’ve never gone through anything like this before. Part of me hopes this is the start of something, and the other part of me is completely freaked out by what might be in store if it is the real thing! I don’t think I’ll every truly feel ready for this. I’ve still got to load up the iPod with my “labor music.” I loaded a bunch of classical and jazz cds into iTunes last night. I wonder what I’ll actually want to listen to during the ordeal.