Christie herself is also pregnant and recalled that the Ellen DeGeneres show has a Mother's Day special where they fill the audience with first-time expecting mothers and then give away lots of amazing baby stuff to everyone in the audience. So, like any good mom-to-be, she went online and wrote an essay about herself and her husband Doug and lo-and-behold the show called her the next day! During her phone conversation, they also asked her if she had any first-time expecting friends that would like to attend the show with her, and she said "yes". Then they asked her for a name . . . and she says: Heidie O'Neill! Keep in mind, we were still "trying" at this point (and no one knew) and I was likely pregnant by a few days at this point (which we didn't know)! Christie must be psychic!
After hanging up the phone with the Ellen show, Christie realizes that baby-brain has just caused her to lie! She really wanted me to go with her, but didn't want everyone to think I was having a baby. So through iChat she told me all about the phone conversation and what she had just done. I was excited and freaked out all at once. I would love to go with her to Los Angeles and check out a show taping, but I AM NOT PREGNANT! And what if a friend or family member see's me in the audience with all of these pregnant women?!? What then?!? Oh the rumors . . . that we didn't want to start. It was a quandary. Should she find a pregnant friend to go with her instead? Should she call the show back and say that she really wants to bring me but I am not pregnant and therefore don't need all the baby stuff?
Well, a week or so later (April 24th to be exact), I was late, and later than the previous month. We didn't think I was actually pregnant so I sent Matt to town to help a friend move and while he was gone I took a test anyway. The box says wait 2 minutes for a result. Right. I only had to wait 2 seconds. Which meant I had to call Matt on his cell and tell him the good news while he was driving to buy doughnuts! Luckily, he managed to keep the truck on the road. This good news meant lots of excitement, and as long as the pregnancy kept going well we would get to tell Christie that she didn't actually lie to the Ellen show.
We got our chance a few days later and it was hugs all around. But this also meant that we would have to tell our immediate families -- what if they saw me on the show before we told them? So we passed around the good news, with the caveat that no one was to say anything to anyone as I was still very early and things could go wrong. We told our friends around town that knew I was going to the show that I was just attending for moral support, and I was going to pass along my free stuff to my sister who is expecting her 2nd child and to Christie's parents so they could have baby stuff at their house. Then the trip planning began! Christie and I left Flagstaff on the morning of May 5th and made our way out to Burbank, CA. The trip was mainly uneventful, but had lots of stops for cheeseburgers (they are YUMMY in the first tri). We had a great room (courtesy of Doug's parents) that was only few miles from the Warner Bros. Studios where the show taping would be.
At the Sizzler parking lot, ready to head to Cali!
Our hotel room -- nice cushy beds for the two prego ladies.
After an evening of dinner at the Olive Garden and an emergency shopping bout at a mall (Christie had left the outfit she was going to wear to the show at home!) we got a good nights rest at our hotel room and were ready for the excitement at the Ellen show. We went early and brought snacks and waited with many, many other pregnant women!
Two lovely ladies ready for the Ellen show! I was only 6.5 weeks at this point.
Checked in and waiting to be brought to the studio.
You were not allowed to bring in cameras or take pictures with phones inside the studio, so I swiped this picture of the set from the Ellen Show Facebook page.
The show was a lot of fun, with Dennis Quaid as the main guest and a performance by Michael Bolton. Yes, the Michael Bolton of the '80s, he's back, but that's another story. Throughout the show, Ellen revealed all the amazing gifts we were getting and it was very exciting! We are getting a variety of things including an amazing high chair that flips over into a booster seat (http://www.agedesign.ca/), Weil Baby baby bottles, a digital video baby monitor, Aden + Anais swaddling blankets, a necklace we can have engraved with our babies name and a very expensive Teutonia stroller with the bassinet attachment and the stroller seat (there were lots of other gifts too)! The grand total was ~$3000 worth of loot and at the end of the show we filled out paperwork and were told that since these are 'gifts' it is all tax free. Wow!
Once the taping was over and we had all completed the paperwork, they filed us out in a line where they handed us our baby bjorn, the latest Michael Bolton CD, and vouchers for the bigger ticket items like the stroller and high chair. We had to go online and order those. Then we got in the car, headed to the loading station, and Ellen show workers loaded up the car with two sets of the other goods! Then we went back to the hotel to examine the loot:
Pile of loot! Notice the swank diaper bag on the right.
Now for the hard part: we signed a form that said we wouldn't reveal what we got on the show after the taping -- so we had to call Matt and Doug and tell them it was awesome, but they'd have to watch the show as we drove back the next day. So with our car loaded down on Friday morning, we made the 8 hour drive back to Flag with all the great stuff. My only comment: "Now all we need is a healthy baby to go with all of this great stuff!" Also, a HUGE THANK YOU to Christie, for letting us share in this amazing experience!
