In November of last year my wife Rachel and I visited Beijing to check out the build up for the Olympic Games. Not long afterwards we learnt we were pregnant with a due date of August the 3rd.

Knowing well in advance that we were going to be working on this blog and that the Beijing Olympics were going to be starting only 5 days after the due date, I regularly spoke to him while he was in the womb and told him he had to arrive before the Olympics started.

The third came and went and my patience began to get tested as things built up. However, after a 7 hour labour, Eli Daniel David Cunliffe came into the world with the birth date and time of 08-08-08 08:34am (NZST). He’s a big boy at 9lb5!

Everything went well, and my legendary wife did it all without any pain relief or stitches!