Easy peasy... NOT

28/10/10 | 10.00 | This was when it all began. They call it pre-labour. It can last for days or weeks. But it did not.

29/10/10 | 21.30 | We made ourselves comfortable at the Armadale Health Service's labour ward. We were booked into Bentley Hospital but at 8pm on a busy Friday night, we had to be transferred to Armadale, some 35 minutes from home.

29/10/10 | 22.15 | Managing labour...

29/10/10 | 23.30 | ... in all sorts of positions.

30/10/10 | 01.30 | Strapped up all over to monitor baby's heartbeat and contractions. On one hand, a drip to stabilise baby's heartbeat - she was way too active!

30/10/10 | 03.30 | Still hanging in there. Dilation did not happen as quickly as we had hoped.

30/10/10 | 07.00 | Two hours earlier... she started on the laughing gas.

30/10/10 | 10.00 | 45 minutes after baby's arrival, it was finally an honest 'thumbs up'!

30/10/10 | 11.30 | After spending 1.5 hours skin to skin with the baby, it's time to pick herself up, clean up...

30/10/10 | 12.15 | ... and be wheeled to the maternity ward, for her maiden stay in a hospital.

30/10/10 | 12.45 | She may be eating but everything is still in a daze...

It was as per the textbooks; to expect 12 - 16 hours of labour for the first pregnancy... Thus, Agnes can testify that when God said child bearing was going to be painful, He wasn't pulling our legs!