Suck and Awe - by Theo

I'm utterly in awe of Kate.

Despite still being in pain from the cesarian and having a daughter too small to properly breastfeed, Kate's determination and perseverance has just left me stunned and even more amazed than ever by this wonderful woman I've married. She's never given up, despite the frustrations and emotionally draining moments as she's tried to get Rosie to breastfeed. Being under-weight it's been even more important than normal for Rosie to feed well and we're on a strict regimen of feeds every 2.5 hours round the clock - breastfeeding supplemented by a bottle feed. As Rosie is such a slow drinker the whole process takes nearly an hour, leaving Kate barely anytime in between to rest, even if I do the bottle-feed and inevitable nappy change that follows. As if that wasn't enough, Kate has been determined that as many as the bottlefeeds as possible should be with breastmilk, in order to give Rosie the best possible diet and to stimulate her own milk supply. Thus Kate has been diligently expressing with a hand-pump in the little time she has to herself.

I'm making myself frantic with housework in an effort to over-compensate, but really nothing I can do can come close to the love and dedication of my wife towards our daughter.