Ashley Williams, 25, was standing in church Sunday morning when she felt a sharp pain. Her baby wasn’t due until Jan. 16, so she ignored the feeling until it became more insistent. Finally, she could ignore it no longer.
“I said, ‘Oh, no,'” Williams recalled Tuesday afternoon from her hospital room at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
She delivered a healthy baby girl, Jálynn Brenae Boyd, by cesarean section on New Year’s Day. The baby weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19 inches long.
The baby was Williams’ third child, but it was the first for the father, Jarvis Boyd, 25. His reaction was a bit less calm as he hurried the mother-to-be to the hospital.
“I started sweating; I was nervous. This was my first …” Boyd said.
Boyd cradled the baby in his arms and fed her as he talked. He attributed his ease with the baby to his years of helping his mother, who is a day care provider.
“Now to have my own, it’s really exciting,” he said. “I can use some of that practice. I’ve been changing diapers left and right. I’m looking forward to enjoying the future years.”
“She’s going to be a daddy’s girl,” Williams quipped.
She’s also going to be the little sister to two older brothers, Derrick, 5, and Dezmond, 4.
The hospital provided the family with a gift basket with an assortment of baby products including blankets, lotion, washcloths and other items.
The one thing the new parents did not receive was their customary allotment of black-eyed peas and collard greens. They were at the hospital while their families enjoyed the traditional holiday meal. Many Southerners believe eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day brings prosperity or good luck and eating greens assures an abundance of money in the new year.
However, they’re not worried. As far as they’re concerned, they’re already fortunate beyond measure.
“She’s a blessing,” Boyd said, looking down at his daughter.
Williams works as a certified nursing assistant at Generations of Vernon, a nursing home in Vernon, Ala. Boyd works as an emergency operator for E-911 in Oktibbeha County and serves as a reserve police officer for the city of West Point.
As a New Year’s Day baby, Jálynn shares a birthday with American patriot Paul Revere, seamstress Betsy Ross and novelist J.D. Salinger.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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