Way overdue update

So March 28th came and went, which means we are less than a month away from our due date. We have been extremely busy getting the apartment ready for the baby. I feel like all we do in every spare moment is organize, rearrange, and clean (I know Rudy feels the same way). We are really eager and excited for the baby to come though. He or she is moving constantly. I know he/she is getting stronger everyday because the movement is getting more intense, crazy and constant. I definitely feel the connection between the baby and me getting stronger on a daily basis. It’s hard to really explain in words, but I guess it’s all just feeling more and more real everyday. I feel more inclined to talk to the baby, rub my belly when I feel movement and just be present with what is going on inside of me. Not that I didn’t do these things before, but it’s just so much more intense these days – like I said it’s hard to explain it. I’ve been feeling pretty good. I’ve actually had a lot of energy, which is good because work and home have been nonstop. I have had to step in as the acting Assistant Principal for Kinder-2nd grade for the past 2 weeks until our AP returns, which won’t be for another 2 weeks. So I am literally nonstop at work. Then the weekends, as I already said, are packed with getting things ready for the baby. I try to take it easy on the weekday evenings, with yoga and just spending time with Rudy and Emma. Unfortunately, at night I haven’t been sleeping well. If I do fall asleep fairly easy I’m still up constantly to go to the bathroom or get comfortable or for just no apparent reason at all. This makes me exhausted when my alarm goes off at 5 for work. I guess it’s all in preparation for becoming a mom, though. I still get some nice naps in on the subway every now and then J. Overall, I am just getting really excited to meet this little one. I’m not nervous or scared for the delivery at all. I’m actually excited about that too. I’ve just been doing my best to not listen to horror stories of labor and delivery that for some reason everyone is so eager to tell me. I just nod politely and then put it out of my head. I’m beginning to think that’s why so many women feel the need to get epidurals and such, everyone tells them how horrible it’s going to be so they anticipate that and of course that’s what you’ll get, with being so nervous and tense. I was thinking about how animals just give birth with seeming little pain and anxiety. No one is telling stories to them weeks prior of how horrible it’s going to be, so I’m taking that approach. I’ll have my own experience, good or bad, it’ll be my own and not what others have told me it would be.
Here is a picture of Melissa and I at my school baby shower about a month ago and another one of me at my NYC baby shower last week.