Kendall Gilding: Why our baby girl is a miracle

Her beautiful baby has finally arrive. But to get her here has been a “scary and isolating” journey for Channel 7 presenter Kendall Gilding. This is her story.

THEY are sleep-deprived, and blissfully happy.

Inviting U on Sunday into their Mitchelton home just six days after the birth of their daughter Olive, Kendall Gilding and her husband Timothy Morgan are doing beautifully in their new roles as parents.

The house is clean, Olive’s array of pink onesies are hanging on the line and the couple are besotted with their baby and each other.

But the tears – happy ones, of course – aren’t far below the surface.

Kendall Gilding opens up about pregnancy fears

Kendall Gilding pregnant after struggle with infertility

For Channel 7 presenter Gilding, 28, it’s a tender moment in front of the camera as she softly showers her newborn daughter’s tiny cheeks with kisses that brings tears to her eyes. For schoolteacher Morgan, 32, it’s a question about the first time he held his daughter that chokes him up.

Kendall Gilding with new baby Olive Joy — born 23 Aug. — and dad/hubby Tim Morgan. Pic Mark Cranitch.

“We have shed a lot of tears in the past six days, because of how thankful we are,” Gilding says.

“Every baby is obviously wanted but we really, really wanted this little girl and it’s such a blessing that she’s here and she’s been so amazing all week it just doesn’t feel real. I cry a lot, she’s so perfect. It’s hard not to just stare at her when you should be doing something else.”

Morgan, who is clearly smitten with his little princess, spends much of our interview with Olive cuddled up like a koala to his chest and, in between clicks of the camera, jumps in to gently brush her hair or re-swaddle her little arms against her body.

“She’s just so beautiful,” he says, beaming proudly.

Gilding and Morgan waiting a long time to hold Olive in their arms.

A two-year-struggle with infertility, involving surgery, multiple treatments and IVF, and a tough first trimester left Gilding feeling anxious during her pregnancy.

After months of struggling to conceive naturally in 2017, Gilding was diagnosed by specialists with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. Last year, she underwent surgery to remove widespread endometriosis in the midst of her duties as the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival ambassador, scheduling the procedure between two event appearances.

The couple went on to spend $30,000 on medical care, including four rounds of less invasive treatment called intra uterine insemination before doctors told them they would need to turn to IVF to fall pregnant.

Kendall Gilding with new baby Olive Joy – born August 23. Picture: Mark Cranitch

“I remember crying a lot and I remember failed pregnancy tests but I don’t have any memory of how we got through that,” Gilding says.

“The journey to get here felt long and exhausting — but she is worth every second of pain, every tear, every failed cycle and every bad doctor’s report.

“We’re big believers in timing — if it was any other egg, or any other embryo, at any other time — it wouldn’t be Olive. She’s the angel we waited to meet.’’

Morgan says the pair, who both attend Nexus Church in Everton Park, relied on their faith and “always knew that God was going to deliver”.

“We always believed we would have a little baby and even if it wasn’t our timing it would be God’s timing,” he says.

Gilding, who describes the IVF journey as “scary and isolating”, says she struggled to maintain a veil of normalcy at work and in the public eye while dealing with her private battle to become a mum.

A pregnant Kendall Gilding Photography: Russell Shakespeare

Following her first embryo transfer on December 10, Gilding was shocked to find out she was pregnant four days before Christmas while sitting in the makeup chair at work, preparing to go on air. She says it was the best gift she could have hoped for.

She and Morgan were over-the-moon but the first trimester was tough on the couple, with Gilding describing a number of “traumatic” and “awful” moments in which she suffered enormous bleeds and they feared she was miscarrying. But, each time, they were told their baby was OK and, from her second trimester onwards, Gilding enjoyed a “fantastic” pregnancy.

“Now that she’s here and you’re at the other end you think ‘that wasn’t that hard’,’’ she says.

“It’s more that you count your blessings because other people go through so much worse and I just feel for those people that spend a lot longer on that road.’’

Baby Olive Joy Morgan arrived on August 23 at 8.11pm, weighing 3.377kgs and measuring 54cm long, after Gilding was induced that morning at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. She had started maternity leave from presenting the 4pm news just three weeks earlier.

“It is super weird going to hospital like ‘oh we’re going to have a baby today’ but I think that also makes it more nerve-racking,” she says.

Kendall Gilding with new baby Olive Joy. Pic Mark Cranitch.

“I definitely wanted to just spontaneously have my waters break somewhere — the planned aspect actually freaked me out, which is funny because I’m a Type A control freak.”

Having kept the baby’s sex a surprise, it was a particularly special moment in the delivery room when Morgan was able to “catch” her and tell his wife “it’s a girl”.

“Her head had come out and they were like ‘alright dad, you said you wanted to catch her’ so they were like ‘get some gloves on’ and Tim’s run around trying to put gloves on frantically,” Gilding says, with a laugh.

“On the next contraction, when the rest of her body came out, he was able to grab her and catch her. He was like ‘oh it’s a girl’. It was really sweet. I’d always felt like I really wanted Tim to be the one that got to say the gender. We would have been happy either way but we both really wanted a little girl so it was such extra excitement that it was.”

It’s thinking about that moment that causes Morgan to tear up.

“It was good to just meet my little beauty, it was amazing,” he says.

Gilding adds: “Then they put her on my chest straight away and we were able to do skin to skin for a couple of hours and she fed straight away and that instant bonding was just amazing.”

While birth wasn’t entirely smooth sailing — Olive was in a “funny position” on her side, which made it more painful for Gilding — she says it was all worth it to have a healthy baby girl.

“My birth was just a bit more stressful than I thought it would be, I think I was just a bit naive about it maybe,” she says.

“But then it’s just like it doesn’t matter because she has been so healthy, she has hit every milestone and I’d much rather her be (healthy). She has fed and slept like a champion from the moment she came out.’’

Gilding says Olive was named by “daddy”. But, with origins stemming from the term olive branch, which is a symbol of peace, they both knew the name fit her the moment they met her.

Kendall Gilding’s husband, Tim Morgan, with their new baby, Olive. Pic Mark Cranitch.

“She came out and she was so peaceful and she has lived up to her name 100 per cent every day since,” Gilding says.

“It was really amazing, she was on my chest and we were kind of looking at each other and we were like ‘yeah, I think her name is Olive’ and then you bawl your eyes out because everything has just come together.”

Choosing a name for their first child was an important task for the pair. Without knowing the sex, they kept a list for both boys and girls. Olive was always at the top for Morgan but, in the days leading up to her arrival, there were even more signs it was the right one.

Reading Bible verses together before the birth, they noticed the word olive was constantly reappearing.

“Then Tim started emphasising it,” Gilding, who notes her great grandmother was also named Olive, says.

“We knew the meaning was like an olive branch, which is like a peace offering, because it happened for Noah on the Ark and we loved that idea. I’d prayed the whole time that we would have a peaceful baby, you want a good sleeper and a good feeder, that was something we always thought would happen. She’s so well-behaved.”

Gilding, who is originally from Cairns, and Morgan, who grew up in Brisbane, have always wanted a family.

“We’ve always believed family was important and we’ve always wanted to have a strong loving family and to build that for our kids and their kids,” Morgan says.

Gilding says it was never just about babies for them, but about building a lifelong bond with “our own little tribe”.

“We’ve often talked about how we want to have kids that — even when they’re teenagers or older — they want to hang out with us, like Friday night pizza night and coming home with their partners,’’ she says.

Gilding moved from Cairns to Brisbane straight after graduating high school to study journalism at QUT. Living with a local family while she studied, the parents were the pastors at Rivercity Family Church at The Gap, where Gilding began attending and met Morgan.

Kendall Gilding and her now husband Tim Morgan.

Morgan and Gilding were “really good mates” for about two years after they first met, and then one day Gilding says ‘that just shifted’.

“I remember I was getting ready for dinner and, as opposed to just wearing some scrappy outfit and not caring if I had makeup on, I was putting in lots of effort and I was doing my makeup really precise and I remember thinking ‘oh my goodness, you like Tim Morgan’ but it was strange because we had been just such good friends,” Gilding says.

“When we went to the movies, and I can’t believe I did it, but I just decided to hold his hand and I thought I’ll see what happens’ and he didn’t let go for the whole movie so I remember just being like stoked and really excited. I was like ‘I’m just going to give it a shot’ because what have I got to lose.’’

The pair — who have been together for almost a decade — married in 2013 when Gilding was 22 and Morgan was 26, in the same church they met in.

Morgan, who already had a Bachelor of Music specialising in jazz piano, was part-way through his Graduate Diploma in Education at UQ when Gilding was offered her first on-air role with Seven back in her hometown of Cairns.

After getting married, the couple moved to the Gold Coast for Gilding’s work with Channel 7 the following year and then to Brisbane, when the station launched the 4pm bulletin fronted by Gilding, in 2015.

“We were those people that waited (to have a baby) thinking ‘oh no we’ve got our careers’ and we were very independent,’’ Gilding says.

“But, when you decide to have kids and it doesn’t go to plan, you kind of regret not trying earlier and you feel a bit silly.’’

But, now that their family journey has finally begun, they’re not taking any of it for granted.

“I used to worry that having kids would mean I’d lose a part of myself — maybe my independence or my youth,’’ Gilding says.

“But really Olive allowed me to gain an even better part of myself. It’s like an extra part of your heart grows overnight, allowing you to love in a new, bigger, more meaningful way.’’