Day 1

Actually it's day 2, but I have an excuse - Alexander was born yesterday at 10.45am KST on a rainy September day in Seoul, at a healthy 7lb 8oz. After 24 hours of epic hand squeezing, a screaming baby with an alien-shaped head was held up for me to briefly inspect before being whisked off to be tagged and stowed away safely in a room full of more screaming newborns. (About the head - it's a temporary effect from being squeezed out though the narrow birth canal.)

Thereafter you can request a 'viewing' through a triple reinforced window, or have the infant brought to your room to experience the delights of your first nappy change, or elicit expressions of awe and wonder from your gawking guests.

Alexander, aged 27 hours

About the room - after birth you must choose one of several hotel-styled rooms to spend the next few nights. The nurses generally look after your newborn, and periodically enter the room to perform various tasks, such as delivering food, checking up on the new mother or cleaning the room (they do this whether you are in the room or not). They also enter without notice or warning, and sometimes at strange times. I vaguely remember being awoken by someone stepping through the mattress on the floor where I was sleeping, at 5am! Joking aside, the whole experience with the hospital has been very good; the facilities are modern and the staff extremely attentive, and compared to hospitals in the UK... it would fill up another post so I'll go into it later.

The feeling of holding your newborn baby for the first time and seeing him look into your eyes is indescribable, and makes it all worth it. At that moment, everything else in the world seemed so infinitely small.