"About 2 or 2:30 this morning I started hurting real bad so I came in and they just kind of monitored me and I started going into labor," says Joanna Bryant.
After 12 long hours of pain and anticipation, at 7 pounds, 1 ounce, 19.5 inches and a head full of hair, baby Ta'Rya came into the world at 1:04pm, making her the first baby born at Abilene's Hendrick Medical Center on January 1st, 2012.
"We didn't expect all of this at all. It kind of caught us off gaurd," says Bryant.
Bryant's original due date was January 17th, so the doctor had planned to induce her on the 11th, but baby Ta'Rya had other plans and clearly needed to get into the world a little bit sooner.
"Everybody says she looks like her daddy," says Bryant.
Torrion Shead had hoped for a little boy, but considers baby Ta'Rya a total blessing and would not change it for the world.
Ta'Rya's mother says, "I'm very excited, I'm very proud. It's a very great day."
While this is the third child for Bryant and the second for Shead, baby Ta'Rya is the first the couple had together, so parenting will be a little different but nothing new for the two.
"Really not too much of an adjustment, just smaller diapers to buy," says Shead.
Shead says he can already tell Ta'Rya will be a daddy's girl and he cannot wait to teach her everything he knows.
"Instilling the values I have that my grandmom and my mom taught me, and just pass it down," says Shead.
On a day known for new beginnings, this family is well on their way to a happy new year with a happy baby girl.
