Many mothers know the struggle to becoming a parent, but few would know it as well as Maitland's Julie Headley.
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Ms Headley and her husband Dean endured 23 years of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) before she gave birth at age 48 to the beautiful Torfvie Madeleine Angelia on August 16 last year.
The new mum lost count of the amount of IVF cycles, embryo transfers and money it took to conceive - or the number of times people said cruel things or told her to 'try this, do that'.
"Everyone's an expert," she said.
But Ms Headley said, after wanting to be a mother for most of her life, it had all been worth it.
"People tell you you'll never understand sleep deprivation until you have kids, and they're right," she said.
"But I wouldn't trade it for the world."
The Headleys were high school sweethearts and began trying for a baby as soon as they were married in their mid-twenties.
After breaking her back, which affected her menstrual cycle, Ms Headley said she knew she would have to see a fertility specialist in order to conceive.
"A lot of people think a couple of goes and you'll be right," she said. "But all of a sudden you're in your 40s. There were times when you feel like giving up."
Ms Headley said while it was difficult to watch other people have unplanned pregnancies, incredibly, she never shed a tear throughout the whole process.
"It's hard when you get told you need to diet, you need to lose weight and there are people living the worst possible way who take drugs and are unhealthy who have children," she said.
"It was harder for my husband, seeing how many kids are in foster care and things like that.
"I'd be on to him saying 'oh should you have that', scrutinizing him for a second beer.
"It does impact your relationship, but it didn't weigh on me. I never felt sad when anyone else was pregnant.
"We did have to give up holidays and things like that but I can't imagine a future without children and grandchildren."
In what could be called an understatement, Ms Headley describes their journey to parenthood as "interesting".
Mr Headley suffered a heart attack during one of their cycles, which put the process on hold. He may not have survived without a rescue dog the couple picked up the day before, who jumped on him in the middle of the night to alert him something was wrong.
The couple also felt the highs and lows of miscarriage and as a result, the difficulty of being happy once she was pregnant.
"Every scan I was convinced I wasn't going to be pregnant anymore," Ms Headley said. "I didn't start buying things until week 27.
"It was really hard for me to buy anything because I felt like I was jinxing myself."
Ms Headley said she even panicked up to the delivery, as the risk is higher for women over 40 to have a stillborn.
But now, the feeling of dressing and feeding Torfvie is just magical to Ms Headley who describes her as a "dream baby".
However, the pair are realistic about the challenges of being older parents.
"Yes, we are going to lose years with her," Ms Headley said. "My joke is that she will at least get her inheritance earlier. We've planned for her. I would like to have another. We have embryos there. Torfvie deserves a sibling because we won't be around as long."
But for now, the pair are lapping up the joys of being parents - planning holidays and thinking about what sports she will play.
"Dean's the ultimate at being a dad," Ms Headley said. "She's got him wrapped around her little finger."