I was 40 weeks and 2 days when my water broke in the middle of the night. Turned out I had been in labor without realizing. Just felt like some mild cramps.

This is what I did in the week leading up to it:
Sex, lots of it. I think DH became nutritionally deficient because of that...
Pineapple.
Raspberries.
I walked/waddled/climbed the stairs a lot. About twenty minutes every four hours.
Spicy food. I had steamed cajun crab. Yowza.
My doctor stretched my cervix the day before but he said it might not work. Ended up working I guess because the cramps didn't stop after I left the office.

Maybe ask your doctor to stretch your cervix before trying inducing?

I tried it at 38-39 weeks and it did nothing. I also did the primrose oil capsules and whatever the tea is that they say to use. I was freaking out because I am 5ft tall and was about 115 lbs full term in my pregnancy and they thought my BS was going to be 11.5-12 lbs. I wanted that baby out!!! I was huge and miserable. But it didn't work, I had to wait the full 40 weeks and had my C-section on my scheduled due date.

Castor oil did not work for me. "Stripping the membranes" (stretching the cervix) did not work for me. I drank loads of raspberry leaf tea. No go.

I think what helped me was just walking. Daily, light exercise. I went into labor each time after going for walks that were more brisk than usual (or maybe my body already knew I was going to start labor soon so I had a little dump of adrenaline and that caused the brisk walk. Who knows?)

Good luck, try to rest!!

If you are naturally having diarrhea it is very possible your body is already beginning the early stages of labor. It is not uncommon to have diarreha and vomiting a couple of days prior to labor starting. Kind of your bodies way of cleaning itself out and getting ready. This happened to me with my 2nd child 24 hours before I naturally went in to labor. I was 40 weeks and 1 day when I had her.

When my first son was born, I was induced on his due date. When discussing it with my doctor, I expressed concern that I heard that inducing was more painful than natural, and the doctor just said that doesn't matter if you're getting an epidural.

Epidurals are the best!

I went in for my weekly check up on the morning of 12/24. Nothing was happening.. not dilated at all, see ya next week. My water broke at 12:15 a.m. on 12/26. So when you say "nothing is happening" just remember that can all change very quickly! I'd just let your body do it's job!!

and as far as being induced? After my water broke, nothing happened. Literally nothing. No contractions, no dilation, nothing. they tried a few things and then went to Pitocin. It started contractions for me, but they were no big deal, I was talking on the phone, chit chatting, eating etc. That didn't work either though and I ended up having a C-Section. But again, try not to stress about the what ifs and just let your body, baby and your Dr. do their things!

Oh and not sure if this is what did it, but I had just finished 30 minutes on my elipticle when my water broke and I have heard that exercise can help get things going. (of course I wouldn't advise strenuous exercise, if it's not something you've been doing throughout your pregnancy)

Relax. You aren't even due yet. I went into labor 40 weeks 2 days and had the baby at 40 weeks 6 days (yeah, labored for 4 days). Most 1st babies are "late". The only scientifically proven ways to induce labor are sex and nipple stimulation. Walking only helps if you are already in labor. Just relax and try not to stress yourself out about it so much. Enjoy these last few days of being pregnant, because when the baby is out, you have to share him with the world.

ETA: I did end up being "induced" to speed things up. Pictocin didn't help because I was having consistent contractions, breaking the water helped but the contractions got really REAL after that.

I did try castor oil. All it did was induce vomiting and made me feel worse. I also tried walking, sex & even jumping (you have never seen such a ridiculous sight as a full term pregnant woman jumping up and down) - seems like nothing worked. BS came when he felt like it.