Cheers lads - can give you the official update now as have finally got back
Contractions started 5am Thursday and were quite severe by the evening so we went down to the hospital, after a bit of a wait they advised us to go home as she was only 1cm dilated (you need 10) - wife had a terrible time at home so we went back down at 4am Friday. She had some awful contractions for the rest of the day up until 4pm when she was finally in a position to have an epidural (big **** off needle in her spine that takes the pain away). Anyway she then sat in the bed til 12am this morning only to be told that she was still on 6cm dilated and that baby was in the wrong position. They tried adding hormones but by 5am this morning (48 hours after her first contraction) they finally gave up on a natural birth as she was still only 9cm and it was not looking like this was going to change for another 5 hours - if at all - so at 6am this morning my very brave wife had a C-section operation after the best part of 49 hours without sleep and our beautiful baby daughter was delivered at 6:14.
All is fine with mum and baby - apart from the fact that they are both knackered - I have just left them in the hospital asleep and intend to catch up with a bit of that myself
Thanks for all the messages of support - and those of you in the know, you are dead right - today has been the best day of my life