One of the lovely rituals I’ve taken on since the sabbatical started is giving Emily her ‘dream feed’ – a bottle feed she has a couple of hours after going to bed. She consumes the lot whilst asleep – but does have definite modes of asleepness. When I get her up initially to feed she sucks away hungrily at the bottle. Anywhere between half and three quarters of the way through the feed she normally falls completely asleep, and I have to use sneaky Dad-tactics to keep her going – usually a smooch to the cheek or forehead.

Being a dad is awesome.