1 year anniversary and maybe 33 weeks maybe more???

A year ago(this past Monday) we were doing this and now we are anxiously counting the days until our home is filled with cries and giggles.

Our anniversary was nice, Matt sent me some beautiful flowers at work and than we headed out for a nice steak dinner that evening. I toasted with sprite and he with a beer, next year champagne:) When we got home we watched our wedding DVD and I cried and he sighed but we both felt warm thinking about how great that day and trip was. OK back to reality...

In the week since my last doctor's appointment things were going okay until Tuesday evening when the medicine just wasn't working and I got home from work and started to have some good contractions for a few hours. They continued most of yesterday but I fought threw it knowing that I had a doctor's appointment this morning.

My appointment was interesting. They did an ultrasound of Mason (I hadn't seen him since 21 weeks) and he is quite the big dude. Right now he is 20-inches and 6 lbs and some change. His head is so far down they couldn't get any pictures of his face but they did confirm he was a boy. There were definitely potatoes if you know what I mean:) The midwife and ultrasound tech think I am more in the 35 week range but my doctor won't budge on the due date? So who knows.....

I am 1 cm dilated and they agree that this baby is probably going to hang on 2 weeks more but definitely not to 40 weeks. He is healthy and I am too, other than the early labor, so lots to be thankful for.

I am still working but next week will be my last week until April. Matt and I both had a sad week at work. Due to the current economic uncertainties many of our clients are unable to get funding for their projects. My office laid off 10 people on Monday and Matt's laid off 5. We are very blessed we were not in that pool.

We will keep you posted!!!

Week 31 and 32: I look like I swallowed a pumpkin

I really do look like I swallowed a pumpkin, a really large pumpkin:) this was taken today, 33 weeks + 1 day.

I do have to mention my lil' bro celebrated his 25th birthday on the 10th. Em and Cade came down on Saturday the 11th and we met them and my folks up at Blackhawk for dinner and some slots. I just love Cade and Em, she is so cute and tells me how great I look pregnant (great sister-in-law). Cade just says "Wow your huge" but that is what brothers are for, I know he means it all in love.

Matt couldn't resist getting Mason his first snow suit!

We had a little art project and painted these already made letters and added some fun decals. I promise more room pictures as soon as we get furniture. Long story but it will be here soon.


The past few weeks have been busy in the Gilbreath household. On October 18th four of my dearest friends;Kathryn, Trisha, my mom and sister in law Emily, threw me a baby shower. Kathryn hosted it at her home in Highlands (an area near downtown denver). The theme was duckies and the food was Asian. It was so chic and fun. I need to get some pictures from the girls but here are a few:

Trisha and Kathryn cutting the cake

My best friend Kai (lives in Alaska) so she could not make it but she sent the next best thing her homemade sugar cookies. She made them as favors for everyone. They do say: " M + M =m"
Too cute, thanks Kai! All the gifts we received were wonderful and we can not wait to use them. Thank you, thank you!!!!

My friend Wes (from college) and his fiance Amanda got us this great back pack. We love to hike so we can't wait to share that with Mason.


A few weeks ago my mom and I were shopping for furniture at Potterybarn kids. They were having a floor model sale. So we got this steal of a deal on this rocker (75% off). It was even in the fabric cover I wanted. So with a trip to the dry cleaner the cover is good to go. Thanks mom and dad. The afghan on the back was made by my Aunt Kelly, when I opened it I started to cry, it reminded me of my grandma June. It is so soft and perfect and I just love it! Love all my california family, the gifts you sent were so thoughtful. I am blessed to have you as family.

The chair is in our living room for the moment, soon to be moved upstairs!

Now for the big news, this past week I started to have preterm labor. I spent Wednesday afternoon at the doctors office in a recliner hooked up to the fetal monitors. Mason and I just hung out, it was really neat to hear his heartbeat for that long and hear his kicks and jabs (even though you wish you weren't hearing them under these circumstances).

For 2 hours I was having regular contractions 2-5 minutes apart but no dilation or effacement going on, no bleeding. Everything looked healthy and normal other than the contractions being so regular and all the pressure I was experiencing in my pelvis. So they sent me to the hospital, hooked me up again and finally decided to give me shot of Tributlene. This is a drug that makes your uterus (a soft muscle) stop contracting. It also makes you feel like you drank 5 espressos and you shake and your heart races...not to fun but for the cause totally worth it.

I stayed home Thursday to rest. The contractions started again and in the afternoon headed back to the doctor. They ran some more tests and did an exam, still no effacement or dilation but she could feel Mason's head, he has dropped. So they sent me home with some oral tributlene to take every 4 hours or as necessary.

So currently we are taking this day to day, praying and hoping that we can get him to 36 weeks. The doctor said if we can get there we will just let nature take its course and let him come a little early. I would like to make it to 38 if possible, this way he will have developed one of the last but best skills, the ability to suck. I am very passionate about breast feeding but of course the number one thing is that he is healthy. I will keep you all informed of our progress:) but our lil' guy might be here for Turkey day. It is all in god's hands.

Week 29 almost 30, sorry no photos.

I can not believe it is October! I am huge but feeling very well and still loving being preggers. I am going to miss feeling him every day, even the good jabs that take your breath away for a minute! We finished all of the painting in Mason's room or I should say Matt did. So now comes the fun part, decorating. Photos to come in the next few weeks.



This Saturday we are attending an all day birthing class that is put on by our doctor's office. I am interested to see what it entails. I have been reading a lot about hospital births and quite a bit of the material is brutally honest about the downfalls to having a baby in a hospital. For example, their C-section and epistomy rates are very high and their drill Sargent attitudes about mothers remaining in bed and not giving you food and drink during labor. I am keeping an open mind but I also know we are in control of the situation and plan to make that very clear to our doctor. Of course in the case of an emergency you want the doctors to be in control and in reality the hospital is the safest place for baby but there is this part of me that knows women have been doing this for thousands of years and during a normal labor should be able to be free in the experience. Sorry to preach but I had no idea that this "institution" existed. If you are interested in a good book, Pushed by Jennifer Block has a lot of facts and statistics and is not all opinion.


On a lighter note, fall is in the air, though we have had seasonably high temperatures in the 80's! As a native Coloradan I know snow is in the very near future....I am so excited for that!


Matt and I have been working a lot, darn deadlines but we know this is just part of the beast. I am looking forward to December and the 4 months I am going to take off of my engineering work. I am excited for mommy work. We hope all of our family and friends are doing well and that the new season brings many blessings.

27 weeks and the nesting begins

This weekend is going to be our first real weekend of focusing on Mason's room. Thanks to HGTV (rate my space nursery) we are going to use someone's idea to create a fun space for our little guy.

The room is currently yellow, so we are going to leave two walls yellow and paint two blue and add lots of fun color.

We have also picked out the crib. Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful gift, all of your grand babies will love using it. It coverts to a toddler bed as well. I love efficient designs, and with our little house the extra storage on the bottom will be wonderful. We are quickly learning (thanks Kai) how much stuff babies require!

So as I enter the third trimester this weekend, we are realizing more so that our life as we know it will never be the same. We are very excited to embark on this new adventure. I think I have finally embraced pregnancy and am actually enjoying it but ask me at week 36 and I may have a different answer.

weddings, family, and friends and week 26

So I have to apologize that we do not have many photos of our Vail weekend. We really need a new camera. I am hoping to steal a few from my cousins. We had a really nice time seeing our family and wished we could have spent more time with them. The long weekend was wonderful despite the horrible cold I woke up with on Thursday morning and still have.

The bride before she put on her gown!

I am proud to announce my little brother is officially off the market and their wedding was beautitful. The cermony took place on top of Vail mountain at a place called the "wedding deck". All of the guests and the bridal party rode the gondolas up to the top of vail mountain. The weather was beautitful! It was odd to be up there with out snow.

After the cermony was complete we took the gondolas back down and headed to Donovan's Pavillion in West Vail were the reception was taking place. Here are some of the pictures that turned out.

Mr. and Ms. Armstead

Great decoration...loved our place cards!

The first dance, they danced to "Danny's Song"

Love this touch!

Keegan looked so cute in his suit. Here he is eating lots of Candy from the Candy table. He slept through the entire ceremony. You could actually here him snoring.

Dinner was fabulous, filet and salmon.

The candy station, it was gone in a few hours!

Their cake beautitful and delicious.

Here is the 26 week shot...I am a house only to get bigger. He is moving a lot, which is such an amazing feeling. I can not believe I am getting ready to hit the final trimester. We just feel so blessed as a family.

We've been absent:week 25

I am not sure where time has gone the past few weeks. All is well, just busy. I need to get some pictures up here and will try to on the next post, which should include Cade's upcoming wedding (they get married this Friday.)

Baby, Matt and I are moving right along. I can not believe I am already approaching my third trimester (just a few weeks). We are getting really excited to meet this little rascal that kicks me daily. Baby and I are healthy, all of the recent tests for preclampsia, diabetes, and anemia came back negative. So I am healthy but swollen. I can not find shoes and have been relying on a pair of flip-flops:) Slightly unprofessional but they work. With all the love in the world my husband has dubbed me "sausage feet." He also bought the most romantic gift the other day, nose strips. I guess I have started snoring and he read in my "what to expect when you are expecting" book that these help. So he placed one on me the other night before bed, I put on both of wrist braces and my large nighty and stood in front of him. He could hardly contain himself. Good thing we love each other so much because I know I am just screaming SEXY! On a side note the strips work but are fairly uncomfortable so my hubby is just having to adjust.

Week 22 and my dear sister to be Emily

We had a lovely and eventful weekend.

Friday night we babysat Keegan for a few hours. He took a bath and ran wildly around the house. The kid loves water. To cute! We tried to watch the opening cermonies but 2.5 year olds are not into sitting on the couch for three hours. Oh well. By the end of the night Matt and I were exhusted. This is good training.

Angela moved in on Friday as well. Keegan adored her and used her as a climbing post. We are so excited to have Angela in our home, she is such a blessing of a sister.

Saturday we spent with Grandma and Grandpa, Nick and Angie and Angela. We had a nice brunch and than went back to G and G's house for conversation and homemade marble squares. YUM! It is always nice to see Nick and Angie, they are living the fun life in Las Vegas but we know they will return to their home state of CO someday.

Saturday evening was Emily's bachelorette party. What a fun group of girls. My mom and I headed downtown to a hotel to meet up with the crazy bunch. We enjoyed some great mexican food and margarita's (virgin for me of course). We sampled champagne for the wedding, watched Emily open all her sexy gifts, and giggled a lot.

We went out to a bar downtown called Sing Sings. Two pianos are faced towards each other and the muscians battle each other and tease the crowd. My mom and I did not stay to long but it was fun to go out for a bit. Mason was very active in the loud atmosphere, dancing all around.

The moms

The bachelorette and Sarah (bridesmaid)

A dirty gift.....

A shot before we hit the town!

All is well on the pregnancy front. No new news. I will try and take a picture soon of the belly.