Tuesday- Danielle woke up at 4:00 in the morning having mild contractions. They were definitely stronger than she had experienced before, but still nothing too severe and occurring semi-regularly. When I got home from work, we decide it was a good idea for us to go into the hospital, just in case. We went got checked out, and they said she hadn't progressed any from her appointment the week before. Our midwife suggested that if we wanted to have the baby soon, to just start walking. So walking we did. We went to the near by mall and walked for 6 straight hours. Eventually how feet were hurting pretty bad, so we treated ourselves to new Sanuk Yoga-Mat made Sandals (fantastic by the way). The contractions continued to become slightly more discomforting, but nothing compared to what the midwife said Danielle would experience. So we decided to go home and walk and wait it out. Danielle called her mom Sophia, who lives in Savannah, earlier in the day to fill her in and decided to go ahead and head down to Orlando so as not to miss any of the action.
Wednesday The next morning when we woke up Danielle was still feeling about the same, so we started once again to walk around the neighborhood. After 45 minutes, we decided it was basically to hot for Danielle to be walking out side and we headed back to the house to get ready to head to the mall again.
Just before we were getting ready to leave for the mall Danielle was eating some chips in the kitchen and asked me, "Matt, what does it feel like when your water breaks?" I said that I had personally never experienced that feeling, but I have heard its different for different people and that some people describe it as a gush, trickle, or felt like they wet themselves. To which she replied, "Ok then, I think we should go to the hospital" So, I shaved and Danielle showered (no way was my son going to think that his dad was homeless looking) and we headed to the hospital. Sophia, at this point had gone for a run so in order to inform her of our current situation, we decided a note would not capture the excitment of the moment. We then raced our Toyota along the running trail until we flagged her down and through her in the car.
12:30- We arrived a the OB triage were they checked Danielle out (whose contractions strength/intervals had stayed the same for about 24 hours now) and confirmed that her water broke. Apparently the maternity ward was slammed with patients that day so we were just admitted to the triage room. Knowing that sitting around can only stall labor, Danielle began to get her walk on around the hospital, reporting back to the room every hour or so. My mother, Julie had been in Crescent Beach for the week and also met us at the hospital to wait with Sophia.
4:00pm- Danielle's contractions have remained the same for 28 hours. She is just as happy as an expetant mom can be, laughing and joking around as I was on the phone with her mom ordering our Panera coffee and dinner.
4:10pm- I literally can not leave Danielle's side because she is in so much pain. They are coming at about 2-3 minutes apart now and are not treating Danielle to lightly. The stress of laboring in a cold, barren triage room instead of the warm, calming, soothing labor room we saw on our hospital tour was starting to get to Danielle. A little Bob Marley, Jack Johnson, and Caedmon's Call calmed her right down. Our midwife took one look at Danielle and decided she needed a room immediately.
5:30pm- We finally make it to our labor room and Danielle immediately hops in the jacuzzi infused with lavender. After a little while of that, we began to try different standing/sitting positions to take her mind off the pain. At one point we were swaying with each other in the dimly lit room like a middle school dance listening to Jack's Mannequin "Swim" on constant repeat. Even though Danielle was in the most amount of pain a woman can experience you wouldn't be able to tell by her facial expressions. She was a straight rockstar.
8:57pm- Danielle, after only 5 hours of true labor, no drugs, and no more energy...pushed our son, Noah Austin Sheehan into this world. He weighed 7 lbs 11 ozs and was 20 1/2 inches long (He is now 21 1/4 inches) and had all the signs of a perfect, healthy baby. We know that God was right there with us the whole time in that labor room, just like he was for the past 9 months. Everything just went so smooth and perfect, it truley was amazing. Danielle and I just stood in awe of what we had created together and how beautiful he was. My parents and her mom celebrated with us in the room as Danielle and I were still in shock of the feat she had just accomplished. We then moved to the VIP birthday suite(thank you Florida Hospital) in the postpartum unit where Noah never left our side until we were discharged home on Friday.
In order for Danielle to prepare herself for the labor of giving birth without any pain medication, we had typed birth plans, motivational notecards, videos, music, aromatherapy, yoga ball positions, and everything in between. In the end, all we needed was each other.
It would take a long time to type everything else that has happened since last Wednesday, and this blog post has been long enough. Here are bullet points to some it up.
**Danielle's mom, Sophia, has been here the past few days cooking and cleaning up a storm (which we could not thank her enough for). She will leave Tuesday morning, Danielle, Noah, and I will have a few days to ourselves then my mother will come for a few days.
**We have been overwhelmed with thoughts, prayers, dinners and desserts from the best friends and family any one could ask for
** Mom(Danielle) is doing great, needs a little encouragement every now and then to take it easy and rest up when Noah's resting
** Noah is fantastic, we've had to take him twice to get heel pricked(poor little guy) to monitor his bilirubin levels (jaundice) nothing to worry about though
**The nights are long, but are getting easier
**I got my mancub and he is the best thing that has ever happened to us
Yay for Baby Sheehan!! So excited for y'all!!! And yay for Danielle and no drugs! So proud!! Hope Noah and Jude get to meet soon!!! Love you guys!!
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