Karen Holmes, 36, a personal trainer, gave birth to a 7lb 4oz son, Samuel, at 7.43am. Her partner Alan Strange, 42, and daughters Ellie and Mia would have been happy to postpone their main festive meal until Boxing Day to give her a rest.

But by midday, Miss Holmes was up and about - and decided to get cooking a traditional festive dinner with all the trimmings."I spent half the day in bed then got up and cooked the dinner," said Karen, from Trethurgy.

"It was not bad as far as births go but it still wasn't easy. I thought perhaps once I'd had him that the day would be a write-off. However, come dinner time I thought I can get up and do things. We were planning to have a small family Christmas anyway so it wasn't a problem.We actually had chicken because my daughter hates turkey. The next day it hit me that I was really tired."

Alan said: "It was all a bit of a shock but any time would have been good. Because of the birth, we thought we would do it all on Boxing Day. But as Karen was up and feeling fine, she decided to do a Christmas dinner - I did help out a little bit!"

What a selfish bastard! His partner has just given birth and his idea of helping out is letting her cook the dinner tomorrow instead of making it today!

They knew Karen was under pressure but couldn't help but wonder what was in the oven...

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