THESE couples had more than the New Year to toast when they celebrated the arrival of both 2008 and their newborn babies.

Danielle Whitley, of Chartham, gave birth to a bouncing 9lb 3oz boy at Kent and Canterbury Hospital’s birthing unit in the early hours of Sunday, which she and partner Nailiee Traylor have named Blaze.

There was also excitement in the same unit for Jacqueline Nicholson, 35, of Joy Lane, Whitstable, and partner Dean Warren after she gave birth to a girl weighing 6lb 12oz, who the couple have named Savannah.

She is Jacqueline’s second child and will be a half-sister to three-year-old Coral.

The New Year started with a push instead of a bang for proud at Dartford's Darent Valley Hospital just in time to join the festive celebrations.

Parents Ekhwinder Narwan and Sukh Narwan, from Princes Road in Dartford, were delighted when their baby girl entered the world on December 31, at 11.16pm, weighing 6lb 8.5oz. They have yet to decide on a name.

Baby Madeleine Debell was born to Zoe and Craig Debell, from Swanley Village, on January 1 at 1.25am, weighing 8lb 11oz, and got a cuddle with her grandmother Bernadette Costick on her birthday.

For more pictures of Kent’s New Year babies, see the KM Group's paid-for papers this week.