Baby Shower Weekend,Vegas, and The Ellen Show!

All of the sudden things got very busy. Starting off with my baby shower weekend. I loved that one shower was Parisian themed after my little guy and the other one was nautical themed after his nursery.  My first shower was hosted by my sister, Ang and my mom. It was held at Queen Bee Bakery in Costa Mesa. Of course my sister went above and beyond with all the small details. My favorites included the Eiffel Tower place cards, the Eiffel Tower chocolate pops, the straws with Mason's name on it, and the "Bonjour Bebe" sign. She is so crafty, I can't even handle it! It was a absolute prefect day!!!

My second shower was hosted by my girlfriends. I was beyond blown away when I walked in and saw all the nautical props. There was even a lifeguard stand!! They had all my favorite foods and a dessert bar to die for including Lori's famous lemon bars that I love so much. The party looked like it was straight out of a pinterest board. I honestly was so surprised and overwhelmed by how much time and effort they put into it. 

Both of my showers exceeded my expectations! I never felt so loved in one weekend. Mason is one lucky guy to be loved by so many. 

The following weekend I decided to go with Dana to Vegas for the last Supercross. I knew I wasn't going into labor at 35 weeks and I was still feeling really good. With Dana being gone every weekend since the beginning of the year, Vegas was a perfect time to have alone time together since that will end very soon. :) We got there on Thursday and did our annual shopping trip. For some reason Dana loves to shop in Vegas. It's kind of funny. We spent the afternoon going all around from mall to mall. Then we went out to dinner at this wonderful sushi place in the Luxor. I can't get enough of sushi at this point and it is so nice that Dana finally enjoys it as much as I do. Friday I decided to shop a little more and then layout by the pool for a bit. After a good nap and some yoga Dana and I had tickets to see Elton John. Both of us were beyond thrilled to see him. We went to PF Changs for dinner because I couldn't get away from the spicy food! Elton was beyond AMAZING! He played all of his hits. It was the best date night by far. Even more so because no matter how self conscious I feel while being 9 months pregnant, my husband always reassures me how much he is in love with my pregnant body. It is the greatest thing to hear when you feel like a cow all the time. I do have to say I have the best husband. The whole Vegas trip was so much fun. Just to spend time with him was exactly what we both needed. I just can't get enough of the guy. I'm so lucky he is my baby daddy. He makes me so excited for our future. :)

After Vegas I had The Ellen Show Mother's Day giveaway show. Two months ago my sister had sent me a link that Ellen was looking for first time moms to share their story to win a chance to be in her audience for her big giveaway show. I filled it out the form that day. It was a short and simple story. Dana and I went to Paris and conceived and then a month later I surprised him on his birthday with a positive pregnancy test. After I sent it in I thought I had no chance. The very next day The Ellen Show called and said I had been chosen! I couldn't even handle it. I was in shock! Finally the day of the show came. A few moms from my birth club had also been selected so it was nice to know some people. It was crazy to be in a room with 200 other pregnant ladies. The gal next to me was a day over due. I thought she was going to go into labor. I actually thought I was going to go into labor from all the excitement! Ellen provided everyone with plenty of snacks and water. It ended up being a really long day but so worth it! Besides all the amazing gifts we received, I loved that Molly Sims and Hilary Duff were the guests. They both happen to be my favorites. The day was quite amazing. It truly was the most memorable "first" Mother's Day. I am forever grateful for how generous Ellen is and how lucky I am to be apart of something so cool. The supply of diapers alone is such a awesome gift let alone everything we got. Mason is already coming into the world such a lucky guy! 

How far along? 36 Weeks
Total weight gain: I'm at a stand still of 25-26 lbs.
Maternity clothes? No, but I have fell in love with Maxi dresses. I have never been a fan but now I can buy enough!
Stretch marks? I'm still using my miracle creams and haven't gotten one!
Sleep: Sleep? What sleep? I'll be lucky if I get 4 hours of sleep a night!
Best moment this week: Between my baby shower weekend and The Ellen Show, I'm not sure how all that excitement didn't throw me into early labor!
Miss Anything? Sleep in general.
Movement: He is one active little guy.
Food cravings: Sweets!
Have you started to show yet: My belly is HUGE!
Gender: It's a BOY!
Labor Signs: Just a lot of braxton hicks.
Symptoms: Sore back, having shortness of breathe, and I am starting to get hot...all the time!
Doctors Appointment: I go weekly now. That means we are getting close!!
Belly Button in or out? It's out. Way out!
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy but a little tired.
Looking forward to: Finishing the nursery and our last ultrasound!!

The start of the end....

This week started all the fun stuff and pretty much the beginning of the end! We had our maternity photoshoot on Monday with the wonderful DrewB. She has shot our engagement photos and our wedding. We always have such a great time with her! I wanted to use most of our maternity pictures in Mason's nursery and since its nautical, I wanted the theme of our pictures to be the same. My best friend Erin has a family friend named Frank. He has the most amazing house on Balboa. If you have been down to Balboa, chances are you have seen his amazing house. It has the most gorgeous dock and private beach. It the ultimate beach house, if you can even call it that. Frank has been kind enough to have had Dana and I over for the boat parade and Erin and I have used his dock and beach area during the summer so I thought maybe he would let us use his house for the perfect "nautical" location. Thanks to Erin and Frank it was a go and I was beyond happy! Our pictures came out better then I expected. I was beyond thrilled when I got them back! Here is a link of them:


Baby Wiggie Maternity Shoot


A BIG thank you to my other Erin, for the gorgeous hair and make-up! She did such an amazing job! 


The following weekend Ashley had signed Erin, myself, and her cousin Amantha up for the Color Run 5K. It was held at the Great Park in Irvine. It's an easy 5K that has powders of colors thrown at you throughout the race. I was pretty skecptical at first because Ash does sign us up for some crazy stuff but this was a lot of fun. There was so many kids and families running it. I know next year we will do it again but with Mason joining us. :) Here our a few pictures from the great day we had! Thank you Ash for always getting us to do fun and random things. This was by far my favorite! :)

How far along? 34 Weeks

Total weight gain: 25-26 lbs

Maternity clothes? Nope

Stretch marks? Crossing my fingers I continue with none. 

Sleep: I'm not sleeping as great as I would like to

Best moment this week: Maternity pictures and the color run!!

Miss Anything? Running

Movement: Yes, he seems to be the most active at 7am and 9pm...everyday!

Food cravings: I am back on the spicy train.

Have you started to show yet: Instead of growing wide, I am growing outward. Pretty funny.

Gender: It's a BOY!

Labor Signs: Nothing yet.

Symptoms: I still have back pain and a little bit of sciatic nerve pain.

Doctors Appointment: Normal appt this week. Everything is still checking out normal.  

Belly Button in or out? It's out and I regret that belly button piercing every time I look at my tummy! 

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Very excited! 

Looking forward to: My baby shower weekend and Vegas!

2 more months to go!

Here we are with two months to go. The realness of it all is starting to set in. We are signed up for our birthing classes. I'm signed up for a few other classes to get me even more prepared. I've traded in my hours wasted on Pinterest and Facebook for a stack of books and my membership to my mommy birth club. :) If you know me, you know I don't do anything without being 110% committed and prepared. I'm not going to lie, I had a panic moment last week feeling so unprepared. The nursery isn't complete and all my weekends are booked until May 19th. After a few people including my amazing husband talked me off the ledge I realized two things, knowing my luck since Mason flipped I will be overdue and the last 4 weeks are going to drag on forever which will give me more than enough time to get everything ready. We also made some progress while Dana was off this last past week. The "to do" list is getting smaller by the day. 


Like I mentioned,  Mason officially flipped. I had been doing yoga twice a day to help flip him and apparently it worked because within 2 weeks I could feel his little hiccups really low in my abdomen. After our last doctors visit it was confirmed that indeed he did flip and is in the ready position. My doctor is optomistic that he will stay right where he is until the BIG day. I'm also back on track with my weight gain. Hopefully that means he'll stay in the 6-7lb range. I'm crossing my fingers. I had to stop running this last past week. I was pretty bummed but I couldn't handle the Braxton Hicks and the back pain that accompanied the running. I have a 5k next weekend that I promised Dana I would walk but we will see how I'm feeling that day. ;)

Daddy showing off one of the many onesies I got made for Mason. I figured since it will be summer when he gets here that's all he'll be wearing. :)

It was so nice having Dana home for a whole weekend. My sister Ang made an amazing Easter dinner followed by egg games. Dana took home 2nd place behind Mike, of course. :)

How far along? 32 Weeks

Total weight gain: 24-25 lbs

Maternity clothes? I bought some maternity spanx for all these events coming up. We'll see how they work out.

Stretch marks? Nope. 

Sleep: I sleep great when Dana is home! 

Best moment this week: Spending the whole week with my hubby home. It was so nice!

Miss Anything? Being comfortable. I think I forgot what that feels like. 

Movement: Yes, and he flipped! Hooray!

Food cravings: I made carrot cake cupcakes this week.....bad idea!!! 

Have you started to show yet: I love my big belly!

Gender: It's a BOY!

Labor Signs: I get Braxton Hicks all the time and he keeps dropping. Yikes!

Symptoms: Back pain, Braxton Hicks, extreme hormone overload and I'm tired all the time! I can't even get out of bed until at least 8am. So not like me! I feel exhausted all day long. 

Doctors Appointment: In two weeks. 

Belly Button in or out? It's officially OUT!

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, excited, anxious, tired but the tears are back. :)

Looking forward to: Maternity pictures and The Color Run.  

I heart New York!

I was so excited and nervous for our girls trip to New York. A week before we left I started to have these episodes where I was blacking out for 3-5 minutes at a time. It happened three times in the matter 10 days. These episodes always seemed to happen in the morning and when I was I driving. The third time it happened, Dana and I went straight to the doctors so they could run blood tests on me. Unfortunately, all the test came back normal. That made me even more paranoid that thtey didn't have an answer on why this was happening. I was so nervous I was going to have one of these episodes while we were in NY. I didn't want to hold our group back from anything. The night before we left I was a complete mess. Luckily, Dana was flying out that morning and was able to help me check in and go through security. Sometimes I don't know what I would do without him. He was able to talk some sense into me and helped me pull myself together. I know my pregnancy hormones did not help out the situation either. :) After getting on the plane and getting into my book, I realized everything was going to be fine!

Our annual trip to New York was amazing as usual. We had some of the best weather and ate nothing but AMAZING food. Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Brooklyn Bridge

The most amazing candy store, Dylan's Candy Bar! I have been dying to go here.

There isn't a better burger than Pop Burger! 

View of Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights 

Brooklyn Bridge. Doesn't this remind you of the end of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days?!

Mason got his first rattle and toys from Gma and of course I got him lots of goodies.

9/11 memorial. 

Here is a link to the blog post of our trip. Ang did an awesome job summarizing our good time.

The Vanderwigfords NYC trip!

After getting back from New York we had our follow up doctors appointment. It turns out my episodes we due to lack of protein in my daily diet. That was a relief and also made a lot of sense. I have been eating a ton of fruit and veggies but not really any protein except for Greek yogurt in the morning. I also learned the burning sensation I constantly have in my ribs is my ribs separating. That's always fun! :) Everything else checked out okay and I am now I am going to the doctors every two weeks. That means we are getting close!! :)

How far along? 30 Weeks

Total weight gain: up 20-22 lbs. Double yikes!!! :)

Maternity clothes? I got some amazing legging with back support from Rosie Pope in NY. Love them!

Stretch marks? Not yet. 

Sleep: Actually I am sleeping so good right now. I hope I don't jinx myself!

Best moment this week: A week in my favorite city but nothing beats coming home to my boys! 

Miss Anything? Not having a sore back.

Movement: Yes, especially when I drink cold water. He doesn't seem to be a fan. I can also see his movements in my belly. Kind of weird. ;)

Food cravings: Carrot cake, fresh fruit and veggies.

Have you started to show yet: I'm all belly! 

Gender: It's a BOY!

Labor Signs: I get Braxton Hicks here and there but nothing serious. 

Symptoms: Burning sensation in my upper abs, my back is shot, and I am only comfy when laying in bed or in Mason's recliner. :) 

Doctors Appointment: In two weeks. 

Belly Button in or out? I say its completely popped out by next week. If I laugh hard enough I think it will pop out. 

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Excited!

Looking forward to: Dana's weekend off next week. We have a nursery to finish! 

Hello 3rd Trimester!

We made it!! Where did the time go? This is when all the fun begins. We have our girls trip to NYC, then our maternity pictures, my 2 baby showers, Vegas, The Ellen Show and then Mason will be here! I can't tell you how blessed I feel right now. Especially after getting picked to go to The Ellen Show for her Mother's Day giveaway show. I have been trying to get tickets to go her show since January and have had no luck. My sister shared a link with me that The Ellen Show was looking for first-time moms for her upcoming Mother's Day show. I filled out the form and shared our "Paris Baby" story and how I surprised Dana on his birthday with a positive pregnancy test. After sending it in I thought I had no chance because they were probably looking for people in awful situations because Ellen loves to help people out. Well, I was wrong! The next day we were driving home from the doctor and a (818) number popped up on my cell phone. I pretty much died because I knew what this meant. Sure enough, it was The Ellen Show. Upon hearing our story, they loved it and gave me a ticket for the show. I was pretty bummed I only got one ticket. I really want to take my sister. I'm still hoping they give me an extra ticket for her! It would be the greatest Mother's Day/birthday present for her. :)

On to the baby, we had an interesting ultrasound appointment. We found out little Mason may be a little bit bigger than we imagined him to be. He is currently in the 72 percentile. He is on track to be at least 8 lbs. I wasn't really shocked though. I feel my bump is a lot larger than everyone else that is due before me. I have continued to eat a balanced diet and workout 5-6 times a week throughout this pregnancy so I had a feeling that the big belly was a sign of a big baby. We also found out he is breech which also isn't a big shocker because I can feel his hiccups in my ribs and his kicks are always super low. Yes, he has plenty of time to move into position but since I have a lot of fluid for him to move around in, it could go either way. I'm not worried about it at all. It's in the Lords hands and Mason will come into this world how ever and whenever he wants to. This whole pregnancy has really helped me with my control issues because I really have no control over anything. I'm just along for the ride! :) I will say after seeing my little man that I am beyond excited to meet him. This whole time we have been saying that he was going to be a mini Dana but after this last ultrasound I have to say he might look like me. He has lots of hair, big cheeks, and cute lips. He is really long. He will be tall like his daddy! :) When I get back from NYC, I'll meet with our doctor and we will get a game plan going. At least we will get another ultrasound out of this! :)

How far along? 28 Weeks

Total weight gain: up 18-20 lbs . Yikes!!! :)

Maternity clothes? Nope, not having any of it. I almost bought jeans the other day but I'm didn't. I made it this far. lol

Stretch marks? Nope!

Sleep: I stay up really really late when Dana is gone but still get up at 6:30am. WTH? 

Best moment this week: Seeing Mason's little mullet! ;)

Miss Anything? Having energy, my sassy heels, being comfortable in our couch, or just being comfortable in general. ;)

Movement: Yep, I love waking up to his little kicks and movements. 

Food cravings: Still spicy thing but I'm all about fruit and veggies right now. 

Have you started to show yet: The belly is growing like a weed. 

Gender: It's a BOY!

Labor Signs: I get Braxton Hicks here and there but nothing serious. 

Symptoms: My back is always sore now. 

Doctors Appointment: Next Tuesday we have a follow up appt with Dr. Lee. 

Belly Button in or out? It's totally on its way out. I can see the bottom of my belly button. Eek!  

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and anxious! 

Looking forward to: NYC girls trip!! Last big vacation before Mason gets here!

Here is my typical prego outfit. Sometimes I add a scarf for a little flair. ;)