Chillin' on the sofa like a big girl!

These are my good friends Hippo, Lion and Monkey. We like to stare at each other!

I like bathtime. When we're done I get to snuggle in my towel.

Ms. Sarah made a sign to hang over my bed in the nursery at church. I look forward to hanging out there with all my new friends.

Does this pacifier make me look like a pig?

Katie's Bed

Today I tried out my bed in my room instead of Mommy's and Daddy's

I'm liking it!

I love my swing!


About to hit the road for Mommy's Dr's appointment. These lights are bright this early in the morning!







Praising Jesus in my sleep!




It's a little big yet, but Michael is so proud of his WAR EAGLE BABY! Thanks to our friend Mande England for her creative work.

When we got home from the hopsital, an anonymous friend had left us a bow to tell the world of our Katie's arrival!

Now what?

Wednesday morning I woke up with chills like I have never had before. My head was pounding and I just knew something wasn't right. At delivery, my blood pressure spiked, but came back down easily without meds. However, they had warned me to look for certain things. My mom brought her blood pressure cuff with her when she came to stay with us, so we checked it. It was over 200. The on call dr. directed us to the ER, ASAP. We went to Cartersville instead of Kennestone because it was closer.

The ER doc didn't think it was too outlandish that I was having this problem. He told us it was like preeclampsia in pregnant women, only it could possibly happen up to 28 days AFTER delivery. He ordered some IV meds and some morphine for the headache. Neither worked. My bloodpressure came down a little, but not enough. I was going to have to be admitted, but where to put me.

I ended up in ICU. It was weird when they wheeled me up there. I might as well have been comatose. They did everything without my input. It's kinda funny in hindsight!

Anyway, I was there for a little over 48 hours. They gave me some meds, but had to switch them a couple of times. We were getting confused by the input of so many doctors and none of them were my actual doctors since I delivered at another hospital. We finally convinced them to let me go sit at home and rest instead of the hospital bed. There were no other symptoms from the high blood pressure. My kidneys and liver were functioning very well. I was not light headed or unstable on my feet.

We have since spoken with my doctor's office and they think everything will be fine, unlike the crazy cardiologist doctors.

This morning and this afternoon, my blood pressure has been great at 130.

proud grandparents' pictures

This was the first time I had gotten to hold my baby, almost 4 hours after birth!

Beth's mother, (Kate) Eleanor Gourley

Michael's Mother, Faye Gill

Michael's parents, Jerry and Faye Gill

The NCIU, but all is well!!

Katie

Kate Emily Gill

She's here!! It took a little while and we changed courses a few times, but we ended up at the most wonderful destination- The birth of Kate Emily Gill!

We were scheduled to induce labor on Friday morning, October 2, 2009. The day before, we went for one last check-up and were told, "Go the hospital right now. Your blood pressure is high and we don't want to take any chances." So, we induced Thursday evening. I was confined to my left side trying to bring my blood pressure down and had an IV attached to one arm and a blood pressure cuff on the other that took readings every 30 minutes. At 9:00 pm, I was given an epidural and at 12:45 am, my doctor broke my water. We made it through the night with very little sleep. I was uncomfortable and had no way to move by myself because of the epidural and all the monitors. Poor Michael was on guard and every little sound brought him upright.

At 7:00 am I was checked and had dialated to only 4 cm. The doctor had wanted 6 cm by this time and they played some tricks with the meds to get progress jumpstarted once again. At 8:30, my doctor came in and gave us the news that we would probably have to have a c-section because I was just not progressing. After I told her about this new pain I was experiencing, she checked me and I was at 8cm! She said never mind about the c-section, we'll wait for her to drop some more and then we will push.

At 12:00pm we started pushing. I discovered that all those extra ab muscles from singing come in really handy during labor. I was pretty good at this pushing thing! At 12:30 we ran into a problem. Katie was looking sideways and not downwards. This makes it kinda of like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The doctor tried to turn her with the next contraction, but to no avail. We had to have a c-section.

The surgery started at 1:03 pm and Katie came into the world at 1:16 pm, weighing 7.6 oz and measuring 19 in long. She was having problems breating around all the mucus and amniotic fluid, so she went to the NICU for a brief period of time, but was released very soon after. She was fine!