June 27, 2001 - Enter Rylee

First moments

When people find out that Rylee was born three and a half weeks early, I tell them that she was prayed out.

Four Hunt brothers were married in the summer of 2000 while the youngest brother, Aaron, was on his mission. Two of the new sisters-in-law had met Aaron before he left, yet, 2 of us had not. The summer of 2001 Aaron was coming home and there was a family reunion planned for the 4th of July weekend. Rylee wasn't due until July 21st and unless she was going to come before the 4th, we weren't going to make it.

It was 2:30 the morning of the 27th when I woke up to something unusual. A contraction. I tried to go back to sleep, but continued having more contractions. At 6, we decided to start walking around the block. At 7am, we decided to go the hospital. The contractions were still coming, not too painful, but I had no idea what to expect. At the hospital, the nurse checked me and I was barely a one. She left us with "well, maybe we'll see you later on today. . ." and we were on our way.

Dang it.

It wasn't long before we got home that a lot of the pain went into my back. OUCH. Ryan drew me a hot bath, but I couldn't find any relief. My parents came over to see me crying on the couch in pain. Ryan and my dad gave me a blessing. Around 3pm we headed over to my parents house. While, again, crying on their couch, my sweet sister-in-law Mindy rubbed my feet.

The pain was awful. Mindy encouraged us to go back to the hospital. This time at the hospital, I couldn't even get out of the car. I was wheeled in bawling.

At 4pm, I was dilated to a 4, and happy to meet and anesthesiologist. Wow. In just moments I couldn't feel a thing! Not knowing how long things would take, my mom and Mindy were going to bring Ryan some food and grab our camera. (Who forgets their camera?)

Thankfully, things went well and after only 20 minutes of pushing (not too shabby for my first and not being able to feel a thing), at 7:47pm, Miss Rylee made her appearance.

I remember watching her coming out and thinking " holy cow, she's looks big." Then to hear she was a whopping 5lb 12oz. When they passed her to me all wrapped up, she was just a tiny peanut with an adorable pink bow. She was beautiful. I was a mom! We were parents. She had such a dainty, pretty little face and her tongue was too cute as she constantly stuck it out. She was so alert and her eyes full of wonder. It was a while before she fell asleep again.

We had no clue that things would have progressed that quickly. My mom came about 10 minutes after Rylee was born with our camera. I heard her knock on the door and asked if she wanted to meet her. A great surprise to my mom.

The Hunts are faith-filled people and we flew to Denver when Rylee was just 5 days old! (Note: if this had not been my first baby when I had no clue what I was doing, I'm not sure we would have done that!). It was a great reunion and so fun having ALL the Hunts together.

Ryan walking off the plane with Rylee
to meet her adoring grandparents and aunts and uncles

Rylee was such an easy baby and is still pretty easy going. She's as beautiful as ever and I often tell people that there is no way we could have 6 kids without her! She is a tremendous help.

October 2010

Happy 10th Birthday, Rylee.

We sure love you.