Coming back from vacation with souvenirs is pretty typical. However, when Australian Dayna Sly finally returns home to Australia from her Disney World vacation, she’ll have something a little more precious in tow – a new baby.
Sly and her partner Tony O’Keefe were having a great time at Disney World. She was feeling fine – no weight gain, no nausea, only a bit of bloating which her doctors told her was a normal symptom of coming off a contraceptive pill. She wasn’t yet thinking of becoming pregnant, as her doctors told her she had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which frequently comes with difficulties getting pregnant.
Sly’s trip – planned months in advance — unfortunately happened to coincide with the deadly Hurricane Milton.
While the outer arms of the hurricane were starting to hit the west coast of Florida, Sly was feeling a little off.
“We were inside, we were all bunkered down, trying to stay safe,” Sly told 9News. “I [felt] really bloated, going to go to the bathroom, I took a laxative.” But she didn’t feel better; she felt worse.
“I started feeling really unwell, and it turned to pain up and down my leg,” she told 7NEWS. “The power had gone out so I went to the bathroom and I was just in all this pain.”
“All of a sudden, then I knew, when the baby was crying,” she said.
O’Keefe was unaware of what was going on, asleep in the next room. Sly woke him up with the news of the birth of his daughter, Audrey.
“When I first woke up, I thought, ‘This is the weirdest dream ever’,” he said. “Good morning, you’re a dad.”
Getting mom and baby to the hospital was the next task. The electricity was out, and so were all the elevators. Fortunately, paramedics made it up the stairs and transported both mother and baby to the hospital to be examined.
At the hospital, it was determined that Sly had been 41 weeks pregnant – past her due date – during her whole vacation.
“I can’t believe how well she’s doing considering some of the stuff mum was doing, like going on rides and going on a plane at 41 weeks pregnant,” Sly told Weekend Today, NewsWire reports. “I had absolutely no idea and really no symptoms. It was very shocking about two days ago at 5 am during the hurricane.”
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Now Sly and O’Keefe have another difficulty to navigate – the Australian immigration system.
The new parents were not expecting to bring a newborn back to the country, and baby Audrey is considered to be an American citizen. The Daily Mail reported that they will have to apply for Audrey’s Australian citizenship, which could take up to seven months, during which time they will have to remain in the United States, extending their vacation considerably.
“’I’ve got to get home and we don’t know if they’re going to let us home or if we can even get home in the near future,” Sly told Weekend Today. “We’ve got travel insurance, thank God, but the main concern is trying to get back to Australia.”
“We just want to go home,” she said.
Thankfully, on Sunday, a spokeswoman from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed with NewsWire the government is helping the couple. “The Australian Government is providing support to two Australians in the United States,” the spokeswoman said. “Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.”
The couple also spoke with Today in Australia, during which host Clint Stanaway commented, “You’re at Disneyland [sic], the ‘happiest place on Earth’ and now you’ve got the happiest gift on Earth.”
