Sean and I have been together long enough to have known many firsts together. Of course, there are the standards: first date, first kiss, first time we met each other’s parents. Then there are the April-Sean specific things: first time we networked our computers, first time we adopted a cat, first time we cured our own bacon. And there are all those scary grown-up firsts: first real jobs, first car we had to secure a loan to pay for, first house. And again, we’re embarking on a new experience – our first kid.

For those who don’t already know, we’re having a girl. She’s due to arrive on December 19th. Neither of us had much interest in trying to time pregnancy in any particular way, and it seemed to work out ok. I’m very happy that I don’t have to deal with the third trimester unpleasantness at the same time we’re dealing with the summer in Texas unpleasantness. However, we’re both anticipating that she’ll be about 6 days late so that everyone who’s interacting with me while I’m all vulnerable and in labor will be super pissed that they’re working on Christmas.

I’m now convinced that there’s no such thing as an easy pregnancy. That said, I’ve been pretty lucky so far. Yeah, I was queasy and more tired that I’d have believed possible through the second half of the first trimester, but I never actually vomited, so it could be worse. My boobs ached something fierce until maybe a few weeks ago. I didn’t really have any heartburn till maybe around 19 weeks, and now it seems the heartburn and reflux are making up for lost time. The round ligament pain has been intermittently crappy, but that’s all to be expected. Really, the worst thing for me has been the limitations on my diet, and if that’s what I’m complaining about, it really isn’t all that bad.

As of today we’re somewhere between 22 and 23 weeks along, which means I’m solidly pregnant-looking at this point. Several of our out of town family and friends have requested pregnant-April photos, so here you go.

The blue jeans apparatus hasn’t worked in quite a while. This picture was taken on June 22nd, and I don’t think it held up much beyond that.

June 22, 14-15 weeks

Here are two photos of me in various stages of pregnancy. Apologies for the quality on the first one; it was just a quick iphone snapshot so my silly sister Rachel could see if I looked pregnant yet.

July 28, 19-20 weeks

For the second one, Sean tried a little harder. He promises to take more soon. I promise to try to be patient and let him.

I think we all know that I’m not the real show here though. Here are some of our ultrasound images. The first image is from our first appointment on May 9th where she was verified to be the right size to be at about 8 weeks gestation. The rest are from our 20 week appointment on July 31st, where we learned that all her parts are in the right places and that she’s a girl. At that appointment, they estimated that she weighed about 11 ounces, and her heart rate was about 150 bpm.

Somewhere around December, we’ll start experiencing a whole new batch of firsts. Hopefully, we’ll have the mental fortitude to document some of them here.