It's already starting!

Max is starting to react to the world around him - including smiling at Mommy! He's also started to pretend that he can't hear me. Yup, he's growing up more every day!

Zoe the baby

"How's Zoe adjusting?" is a common question these days. The answer is, "Okay." She absolutely adores her little "brudder" and she loves being a great big sister like Dora and Benny the Bull and Isa (all characters from Dora's adventures).

The only catch to her being a big sister is that she's feeling the loss of being the one and only baby in the family. She lets us know this by reverting. She often cries for "up" and wants to lay on my shoulder - mostly when Max is in my arms. Sometimes she insists that I put a burp cloth on my shoulder before she lays her head down. And this picture was taken after Zoe requested that I wrap her up "like a baby". She likes to be swaddled almost as much as Max does!

When I indulge her and call her Mommy's little baby, she cries out, "Mommy, I'm a big girl!" This she says as she is laying on my shoulder on a burp cloth and swaddled. Oh well. She'll always be our baby, she just needs to be a little older to realize that. Until then, I'll "up" her as often as I can.

Happy Halloween!

I'm not sure who had more fun this Halloween - Zoe or Mommy! Although she went trick or treating last year to our neighbors' houses, this is the first time she went real trick or treating to strangers' houses.

I had no idea what time was kosher to start the fun, but we headed out just after 5 and before it got dark. Zoe was a champ at knocking on doors, and as long as it was a kid who answered, she would talk - sometimes saying "Trick or treat!", other times saying "Thank you!" or "Candy!" As soon as the treat landed in her pail, she would look at me a smile real big. I couldn't help but return the grin! But if it was an adult or an older kid dressed up, Zoe clammed right up and wouldn't do anything but smile. At one house, a kid answered the door dressed up in a "scary mask" and Zoe just ran behind me!

Here's a video of Zoe trick or treating at our house:

Now you would think that with her enthusiasm at getting a pumpkin full of candy, she would be insistent on eating every last plastic-wrapped delight until she passed out from a sugar high. But you would be wrong! I unwrapped a snickers to eat myself and she asked, "Mommy, what is?" I told her it was Mommy's favorite candy called snickers and offered her a bite. No lie - she said, and I quote, "Ew! Mommy I don't like chocolate!" That girl is not right!!

Later that night, we headed over to our friends' Halloween party. Max, ever the party animal, slept all night while Zoe ran around, ate her weight in cheese balls, and played pong with Daddy the Pirate. Always the teacher, I tell ya!

Grandma's here!

Grandma "Gee-ill" came to give some sugar to her grandkids! Max loved to be held close and often to Grandma, Zoe loved doing crafts with her roommate, and since Everett was away on business for a week, Mommy appreciated the extra help and company.

Happy Fall!

We headed to a local farm for some fall fun! Zoe had a blast walking, or rather running, through the corn maze! "Mommy, I'm hiding!"


They had the neatest thing: a corn box! It was kind of like a sand box, but with kernels of corn! The kids were going crazy in there, and Zoe was no exception! One older boy was throwing corn around (which was verboten, but he and his parents didn't care) and some got on Zoe. She just turned around and laughed in his direction. She's such a good-natured kid!


They also had a huge playground and duck racing thingie - that's the technical term! There were these plastic ducks and the kids had to pump the water down a tube to the other side where other children were there to send the ducks back. "Quack, quack, duckies! Quackie duckies!" Zoe got really into it!


Finally, they had a pumpkin patch where Zoe got to chose her own pumpkin! We taught her the cardinal rule of pumpkin-picking: get one with a stem. After we told her that, she kept pointing at pumpkins and saying, "That one has a stem. That's good!"


Max was a little less than impressed. He slept snuggled in the baby bjorn for most of the afternoon. Ah, to be young again and having a blast in a Corn Heaven or asleep nestled next to one's Daddy.

All my children

Zoe loves to hold her "brudder Maximilwin":



Zoe says "cheese" and Max says, "waaaa!":



Zoe loves to play with Max:



My boys:

Happy One Month!

Max's first month has come and gone! I really can't believe it! Four weeks goes amazingly fast when you are sleep deprived, are continually feeding a person from your person, and are taking care of an older sister who has become quite demanding of Mommy's time.

Max finally lost his belly button crud at 28 days and the next day he got his first bath. He kind of liked it. He got in and you could see his little wheels turning in his head, "Hmmm, I think I like this. Yes, warm water, Mommy washing me, warm water...oh wait, I'm awake and not crying. This doesn't seem right. Waaaaaaaaa!" Okay, Max doesn't constantly cry when he's awake, but he quickly realized that day that he shouldn't get too comfy in that bathtub! But I'm happy to say that he loves his bath now! He sits in there, cooing and looking alternatively in my eyes and out the window. The crying commences when I take him out of the warm-water-heaven.

The best part of bathtime for me is afterwards when he's all clean and dry and he smells so yummy that I have to remind myself that he's my son and not some gastric delight. He just looks around, content as can be, and we have Mommy and Max time. This consists of me gazing into his grayish blue eyes, smiling reflexively back at him, and telling him how much better my world is with him in it.

Welcome to the world, Max!

Well we had a baby so it was time to celebrate! We had a party for Max to celebrate his entry into our world. We wanted to have it outdoors somewhere, but Saturday turned out to be cold and damp - not exactly ideal conditions for a newborn! So we moved the party indoors to a local pizza joint.

Zoe was a gracious hostess and spent the morning decorating a special cake for Max with sugar-based pumpkins, black cats, ghosts, and "Boo" "cake-stickers" and orange and black sprinkles. She loved it and I loved making the cake with her!


As with Zoe's welcome party 2 years ago, we had a journal for people to give Max some advice to be given to him when he turns 16 in 2025. My goodness that seems so far away! And I just realized that I will be 50 then! Yikes! Okay, back to the present where I am not 50 and my son is not 16! Guests were given homemade chocolate cigars to take home with them - thanks to my Mom who helped me make them before Max made his arrival.

Now you must know - Max is a party animal! That boy slept the entire party! He squawked a few times, but never really woke up. I'm sure our guests would have liked the opportunity to hold him, but they undoubtedly should be grateful they didn't get to experience his cries!

I was glad we could have this party before we left Nashville to celebrate Max with our friends. We don't have much time left here in Nashville, and although I'm sure we'll keep in touch, we're going to miss being close to our friends here. Our friends are our family and we sure are going to miss them!

Family Movie Night

Zoe doesn't watch a lot of TV - besides her few Dora DVDs - but on Friday we had our first Family Movie Night! We shut off all the lights, moved the couch to sit across from the TV, made some popcorn, and put in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Do you realize how old this movie is? It first aired in 1966! How many generations of children have watched this classic? Now we can add Zoe to the list!

She totally cracked me up watching the 22-minute Halloween-themed saga! She sat, rapt with attention, eating her popcorn out of her pumpkin pail not moving an inch! She was enchanted with Mr. Shultz's creation. I don't think she understood too much besides the fact that "that girl (aka Lucy) was not very nice"!

But the movie just helped fuel her love of all things pumpkin. She is very much into Halloween this year and I am just over the moon thinking about how much fun this whole holiday season is going to be with her!

Crawling on the ceiling

Because why not?

Going with the flow

Max is doing great...or rather he's sleeping and not doing much else...which I guess is pretty great for both Mom and babe!

I'm not sure why that first picture is oriented upside down, but it may serve as today's lesson: just go with the flow, man! I love his little froggy legs!

Here's a video of Max being Max...enjoy!

Lucky stroller

We headed to Oktoberfest in Germantown last weekend. It wasn't our first time there, but it will probably be our last beer festival in Nashville. So sad, but there will be other beer festivals...

Zoe was once again a hit with dancing:

And our stroller, complete with a sleeping baby, was once again the lucky recipient of two full beers in her cup holders:

Catch up

So it's been a while since I've posted. What can I say? Things have been busy around here! Instead of posting a whole bunch of posts, there are a few dates and events that I'd like to record so how about I catch you all up on the last few weeks?

Mom left on Mango's due date, September 29th. You can see from the picture that Zoe was not too happy to see her Grandma go...and neither was her Mommy! The last night Mom was here was tough. Zoe kept waking up throughout the night crying for Mommy and Max decided to wake up a lot more frequently than I had been accustomed to so I was exhausted. I was sad to see Mom go, but it was time.

The next date that I want to remember is Friday, October 2. That was the day we had scheduled an induction to get Mango out if s/he hadn't made an appearance yet. Everett called me that morning to tell me that his Outlook had alerted him that we were going to have a baby that day! I don't think I would have opted for the induction though - I had an appointment scheduled for the following Monday.

The first weekend in October brought Granny and Granddaddy Gill! We had a great time visiting Bass Pro Shops, going fishing, and just hanging out watching Max and playing with Zoe. Granny brought a bunch of canned soups, veggies, and jams for our eating pleasure. So good! They also brought some presents for the kids. Zoe received a baby doll complete with a handmade blanket, as well as a talking book which she loves!

That weekend we also made an offer on a house - or tried to. When we put in our offer, we learned that the people selling had just accepted another offer so we lost that house. We currently have an offer in on a house that we previously had made an offer on but lost out to another buyer. Evidently, that deal fell through so the house came back on the market. Now we just wait and see. It's kind of nerve wracking not knowing where we'll be living in a month, but there's not much we can do about it. I have faith that all will work out in the end.

Overall, we're doing great. Zoe is loving being a big sister and loves her little "pop baby Max". We have no idea what a "pop baby" is, but we just go with it! Everett and I are learning to be parents to 2 kids on less sleep than we'd like, but we're having fun!

A long awaited meeting

We had several people come visit us in the hospital. Max was very cooperative and let Doug, Dave, Amy, Melanie, and Derek hold him without crying. Will opted to look from afar!

Max's very first visitor was his Grandma. Mom dropped off Zoe at daycare and headed in to see her first grandson! You can see from the picture that she was beside herself with happiness! I was a bit sad that she couldn't be there at the time of his arrival, but Zoe needed her Grandma more than I did. We actually were about to call in the babysitter we had lined up for Zoe and have Grandma come in, but Max came so fast that we didn't have the chance!

Later that day, Zoe came for a visit! Talk about being excited! Daddy picked up Zoe from school and brought her in. He made sure she that she got a bracelet just like her Mommy, Daddy, and brother. It said, "Big Sister!" just like her shirt!

She opened the door to my room and ran over to my bed and jumped in with me. We talked for a bit about school and then we went to see her brother, "Max". She had a present for him (a rattle) and he had a present for her (prince and frog figurines). Ah, brother and sister getting along with a little bit of help from commercialism!

Zoe immediately took to Max. Her first words to/about him, "Oh my baby! So cute!" Then she played with his piggies and told him how they went "all the way home". There was also a little "coochie coochie coo" action going on. We caught a bit of the love on video. Enjoy!

A Nashville Welcome

On the second morning of our hospital stay we were awakened by some lady who knocked on our door and asked us a very strange question.

"Good morning! Would you like to be visited by the Titans today?"

I thought maybe I misheard her. "Excuse me?"

"The Titans visit new mothers and babies once a month and today is the day. Would you like them to stop by this morning?"

I was really confused now. "The Tennessee Titans? The football team?"

"Yes ma'am. They'll be by between 10 and 11 if you're interested."

"Um, okay."

So 2 Tennessee Titans players came to visit Max and Mommy ... and Daddy and Grandma!

Everett was just about to leave the hospital to drop by work for a few hours when they arrived with an entourage of press. Keith Bulluck and Mike Rivera signed team photos and then paused for a few pictures.

So weird and so Nashville!

The video's kind of shaky, but it is what it is! Enjoy!

Oh boy!!

After many months cooking in the oven, we are proud to announce that he's done!

Maximilian Boucher Gill arrived at 12:33 am on Monday, September 21, 2009 weighing 8 pounds 2.5 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches in length. Little Max has all 10 fingers and 10 toes accounted for and is perfect!

It started to get tricky around dinner time on Sunday night. All day long I was feeling kind of worn out and achy and I didn't have much of an appetite which was unusual for me. We had had a packed and tiring day with Zoe - who did not nap! - so I just figured that I was tired and achy from taking care of her. Luckily I was able to take a nap in the afternoon when Everett took Zoe to the park to burn off some energy.

I put Zoe to bed and came down for dinner. I wasn't hungry and was starting to experience some "gastro-intestinal" issues. I just felt like I had really bad gas pains. I tried going to the bathroom, but the pain did not stop. The pain wasn't coming in intervals though so I didn't think much of it...until I did.

We sat down to watch an episode of the West Wing and I moved from the soft couch to the more sturdy rocking chair thinking that the hard back would make me feel better. It did and then it didn't. I got up to walk around the kitchen and came back in the living room to stare into the concerned faces of Everett and my Mom. I tried to reassure them by alternating the phrases, "these are just gas pains" or "these are just practice contractions". They didn't seem appeased.

I finally told Everett to start counting - both the minutes between these suckers and their durations. I told him that these particular pains probably started at least 40 minutes ago. He looked more concerned.

After one painful "gas pain", I said that if I got another one, I would take a shower.

I took a shower.

After a second painful "gas pain", I said that if I got another one, I would call the doctor.

I called the doctor.

The doctor informed me those were probably not gas pains, but contractions. Duh! She said I could take my time, but that I should probably head to the hospital.

So we did. Everett and I packed a few last things and then piled into the car with the contractions about 6 minutes apart and lasting for anywhere between 30 and 60 seconds. Ouch. It was like clockwork though, those contractions. When we were in the car, I knew one would be coming because it was exactly 6 minutes from the last one. I had three contractions on the way in and each one felt like it got more intense than the previous one. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

We arrived at the hospital and attempted to check in, but no one was at th desk. HELLO? I'm in labor here! Everett went to find someone as I paced the hallways in pain. I had probably 4 more contractions before I was checked in. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

They brought me to triage to determine if I was really in labor. They hooked me up to the contract-o-meter and got the baby hooked up to the monitor as well. I had a contraction (ouch) and all of a sudden 3 nurses came flooding into the room to join the nurse who was helping me. Evidently when I contracted, the baby's heart rate took a digger. This could indicate that the umbilical cord was choking my baby and would require an immediate c-section. This same thing happened with Zuzu. Oh no, please no. I was told to turn on my side and the next contraction (ouch) yeilded no change in the baby's heart rate. Thank goodness!

The nurse checked me and I was at 5 cm. That, along with the strong sense I was feeling to push led them to admit me formally as a delivering Mommy. Here we go!

They wheeled me across the hall and we got set up. I can't even remember how many more contractions I got (ouch, ouch, ouch infinity), but eventually I got the epidural placed. To be honest, I think the contractions hurt Everett more than they hurt me - I kind of squeezed his hand hard, plus he didn't like to see me in pain - but I was glad to have that sweet, sweet elixir!

At one point, Everett said, "You're contracting." Which I took as a question. I said, "I don't think so." And he replied, "No, you are contracting!" and he pointed at the contract-o-meter which was pinned at the top! Sweet, sweet elixir!

Then we played the waiting game. We took some pictures, watched Dirty Dancing on TV (it was on when we got there), and posted updates on Facebook.

Around 10:30 or so the doctor arrived and broke my water with the knitting hook tool. Gushhhh. Turns out, my water wasn't leaking at all!

Around midnight, I started pushing. I remember visualizing my baby's head traveling down the birth canal and that with every push he was getting closer to being in my arms. I vividly recall thinking, "I am going to push this child out now!" In fact, I told Everett that I was going to push him out on the next push.

The next contraction came and I was ready to push. As Everett counted to 10 the first time (I pushed 3 times per contraction), I pushed with all my might. I rested, took a deep breath, and started over again. Push!!! "Okay, one more time, you're doing great Mom!" the nurse said. Everett started counting for the third and final time, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..."

"Wait! Stop pushing! The baby's shoulder is stuck!" the doctor shouted.

I froze.

The doctor maneuvered the baby in some way to free the shoudler and then said, "Okay, push!"

I pushed with all my might and then I heard my baby for the very first time!

Everett declared, "It's a boy!"

I cried tears of joy as they placed that sweet little man upon my stomach, still attached to me, still wet, and still screaming. I bent down and touched his head and tried to kiss his head. My baby, my sweet Mango, my son.

Our son.

Welcome Max. Welcome to the family.

Good eats

This weekend was spent eating well!

On Friday night we headed to one of my Mom's (and our) favorite pizza joint - Mafiozas! We ordered the Gill Special - a spinach, feta cheese, and sausage pizza (trust me, it's to die for!) and an onion pizza for dinner. And for dessert? Cannolis and chocolate mousse!! So! Very! Good! Zoe had her first taste of a cannoli after some prodding, but she wouldn't eat the tiny chocolate chips that resided within the rich ricotta-based filling. "I don't like chocolate." Sometimes I have serious doubts that this kid is actually mine!

On Saturday we headed downtown and walked along the riverfront exploring the train station and Fort Nashborough. They had forcasted rain, but it turned out to be a lovely day!

We headed to the Wild Horse Saloon for lunch afterwards and Zoe got a kick out of seeing the racing horses on the ceiling. After she was finished eating (mac-n-cheese of course!), she headed out to the dance floor to dance with about 7 random children who were bustin' a move out there as some local talent sang loudly upon the stage. I don't think Miss Zoe will have trouble making friends!!

I ordered the fried pickles, a Nashville favorite. I know it sounds kind of gross, but it's not. That's me, all big an preggers in the picture holding out fried pickles that were served in a guitar-shaped wire basket. Mmmmm, fried pickles!

That night, Everett and I headed out to celebrate our 4 yr wedding anniversary while Mom and Zoe stayed behind playing and reading stories. We decided to go to dinner and a movie which is one of our favorite nights out and one that isn't too common now that we have a toddler. We used to take Zoe to movies when she was a baby, but we fear now that it would be a disaster given her very short attention span! A few more years perhaps!

We ended up seeing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D! We laughed, we cried (I really did!), and we laughed some more. This movie was just what the doctor ordered! The 3D animation was pretty cool too! It wasn't the usual "Oh my goodness, here comes a yoyo at my face!" kind of 3D, just good ol' fashioned three-dimensional depth.

We ate at Dave and Busters for dinner. If you're not familiar with this establishment you should know that it's a very fancy, very romantic restaurant...complete with buffulo wings, a sports bar, bowling alley, skee ball, and video- and coin-games galore! So it might not be the fanciest of places, but Everett and I aren't exactly fancy people! We love to play the games and collect tickets for prizes! That night we scored over 1,000 tickets in about 25 minutes! Yes, we're that good...or at least lucky! We're saving up for the 2-sided blender. We figure we've got 2 kids who may like different kinds of fruit smoothies! We've got about 6,000 tickets and need another 3,000 more. I think we can do it!

On Sunday we ran a few errands. We stopped by the mall to ride the carousel. Zoe had a blast with Grandma. It constantly amazes me just how excited she can be with something so little! I hope she's just as excited about her little sibling!

False alarm

We had a doctor appointment this Monday. I'm still 3 cm dilated, but 4 pounds up! I was a little concerned though because I wasn't sure if I was leaking amniotic fluid. They did a test and it was negative so we went home.

Fast forward to today...

These are pictures of me this morning in the hospital. I was still unsure about whether what I am experiencing is normal or is excessive fluid loss. I kept imaging Mango floating in less and less fluid in my uterus while becoming dried out like a wrinkly prune. How's that for visualization? But given that I had to be induced with Zoe due to a low amount of amniotic fluid in the ol' womb, I decided to play it safe and went and had everything checked out.

I went to the hospital myself and told Everett not to worry - and you know he didn't, right? I kept him informed via text messages all morning long. But I know he was on edge.

It took a while to get checked in to the hospital. They had no OB triage rooms so I was checked into an actual Labor and Delivery room, complete with the baby station set up to receive the newborn. That kind of freaked me out. I was just there to get checked out after all. I was not having a baby today, right? Right!?

They did 2 tests to check to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid. The first test came up "possible amniotic fluid leak". Excuse me? They took a sample for test #2 and said if that came back positive, they would induce me, and I would be giving birth within 24 hours. Excuse me?

I couldn't do much but lay there in the bed listening to Mango's steady heartbeat on the monitor and feeling his/her movements underneath my massive belly. So I did what I do: I fell asleep while awaiting the results from test #2.

I was awoken by the sound of the nurse entering the room. She said she called my doc - who was off today- twice. On the first call, the doc told the nurse that I was smart for coming in to get everything checked out and if that if I needed to be induced, she would come in for me. Can I tell you how much I love my doctor!! The second call was made after the test came back negative. No amniotic fluid leakage here! The doc said to relax, go home, monitor everything, come back if things change, and that she'd see me at next week's appointment.

"Whew." That was both my response out loud and Everett's response via text message at the news.

We want to see Mango, but today is just too soon. We'll be ready for the arrival whenever s/he comes, but goodness! Hmmm, due date's in 11 days. We better get ready soon!

(This last picture is a view of downtown Nashville from the L&D room today.)

Play it again

We headed to the hospital tonight for a little Baby 101. We signed up for a refresher course on "Labor and Delivery" and were greeted with some graphic videos of childbirth and an annoying labor partner named "Jeff". He was this dude in the video who was very supportive for his partner, but Everett and I couldn't help but laugh at his demeanor.

"Yes, dear."

"You're doing great, dear."

"I love you, dear."

All said while he was wearing very nice khakis, a blue and white striped button up shirt (buttoned all the way up of course) and suspenders. Suspenders! He was quite a snappy dresser!! But he was saying all the things he should as his beloved pushed and shoved their little one out with no epidural! But something about it seemed silly this time around. Maybe it's because we've been there before, but the scenarios on the video all seemed contrived - even though they were real, documentary style videos.

I guess we were just recalling our own experience which was so different from all the couples showcased on the video. I know every birth experience is different, but it's one thing to say that and one thing to believe it.

One thing is certain however. Even though it wasn't very pretty, as soon as those little ones popped out of their Mommas and were delivered onto the Moms' now empty belly, I couldn't help but feel a wave of love and emotion flow through my whole body. My eyes teared, my breath quickened, and my grip on Everett's hands tightened. Because no matter how contrived these women's birth experiences seemed or how different they were from my first birth experience or how different my second birth experience is going to be, the end result is the same. And that is the beautiful commonality in all birth experiences.

Nailing it again

As per my pregnancy tradition, Mom and I went and got our nails done! We went to the same beauty training school we went to two years ago, but this time the experience was a little different. The two students were very nice and very honest about how they "couldn't paint nails very well", "didn't like to touch feet", and how they "didn't want to be a beautician" because she was "going to be a bartender anyway." Hmmmm.

So our nails may not be salon quality, but we sure had fun!!