Blood, sweat, tears and all the gory details

Our 8lb 11oz Wolf Baby has hairy arms, a full head of hair and cool sideburns!

Joe-Joe arrived two days earlier than scheduled in time to catch the morning milkman.

Deborah started feeling contractions at about midnight and by 1am she was in the birthing pool at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital cursing the fact that she'd ever met me.

Tracey the midwife said it was "a text book birth" with Joseph Michael Roland Hawkins swimming out of his mother's vagina and into daddy's arms at 7.25am.  

After being pulled out of his watery environment (which I must say wouldn't have been awarded a Blue Flag following an uncontrollable bowel movement (by my wife, not me!)) Joe-Joe filled his lungs and let out a nice loud scream. He looked a lot bigger than I'd expected him to be and had a full head of light brown hair. When it came to cutting his umbilical cord, I actually thought about giving him a short back and sides haircut first!

Unfortunately, in Joe-Joe's rush to make it before breakfast he'd ripped his mummy and I watched in horror as the water turned the colour you'd expect to see after a dolphin massacre by Japanese fishermen. The midwife was concerned enough to ask me to give Joe-Joe his first skin-to-skin contact while they took a look at the severity of my wife's wound.

Whatever amount of pain my wife was in, it didn't stop her laughing hysterically when I ripped off my T shirt to reveal my very stubbly, very white chest. (Joe-Joe's early arrival had prevented me from shaving the stubble for my big moment). Tracey the midwife also commented how ridiculous I looked with my builder's tan and chest stubble. "Try not to give him a rash, he's been through enough already today," she said, as I held him close for the first time. It was the happiest moment of my life.

Skin-to-skin with my beautiful Wolf Baby

Thankfully, my wife wasn't ripped as badly as the midwife first thought which saved Deborah a trip in an ambulance to Poole Hospital where they have a reconstruction expert. It was a relief all round and by 8 a.m. Joe-Joe was in her arms and covered in toast crumbs when we called our family and friends to tell them the news. As one friend remarked: "Now the fun begins."