Problems importing Gmail into Mac Mail app :(

I just bought a mac and am new to everything mac related (but so far, I love it!).

I was attempting to set up the mail application, and proceeded to sync it with my existing Gmail account. I have had my gmail account for over 3 years, and have emails going all the back to 2006.

The problem is this - the mail app only seems to detect my emails on gmail from the past. Whenever I hit "get mail", it brings in 5-10 emails from the past. It is going in chronological order, but is there a way to stop this process and have it detect only NEW emails that come to my gmail account?

Sorry if this is confusing...but thank you for your input and advice!