Breastfeeding: What I know and wish I had known prior to the delivery

I KNEW...
- that breastfeeding is the best for both babies and mommies (They have lots of vitamins and nutrients which formula milk just can't copy and offer)
- that breastfeeding is cheaper (saves on those loads of formula milk which are pretty much expensive than fresh milk or other powdered milk like Nido)
- that breastfeeding doesn't spoil the milk as it is placed in a safe container, ready for the baby to consume anytime
- that I should drink up lots of liquids especially hot ones or soups, and other capsules or supplements of malunggay, fenugreek, oatmeal and all types of foods which will help me produce more


I DIDN'T KNOW...
- that once the baby comes out whether you delivered via normal or c-section, the baby should've latched onto you with the help of nurses or other staff in the hospital
- that I should've offered my milk to my baby every 2-3 hours to help establish my milk supply (My idea before was that I didn't want to wake her up and disturb her peaceful slumber)
- that before the delivery, you can ask the nurses or other staff to let them know that you strictly want your baby to be breastfed and giving formulas while in the hospital is not an option for you
- that it will only hurt for the first few weeks, so you should just keep in mind of the benefits rather than resorting to immediately quit, after all, you're doing it all for your baby
- that I should not worry as my baby feeds on 1 breast and that I can still pump or hand express the other (as I was thinking that if my baby doesn't feel full on that breast then I should not completely empty out the other by pumping so she has another source, which is totally wrong.. your breast will think that its feeding 2 babies since both breasts are being sucked so it will help produce more milk.. I did try this though but later and was totally relieved.. hitting 2 birds with 1 stone as she had her feed and same time I had stored a breast milk for her in the fridge)
- that I should not worry that my baby doesn't get enough milk once she comes out as the milk we produce is still the colostrum and that its really good for the baby though it comes in little volume and that should be enough for my baby's very small tummy
- that there's a correct way to actually position your baby (I did it the wrong way so that explains why my baby won't really latch and kept crying as if she couldn't get any milk from me when we were still in the hospital)

For a Filipina mom like me, it was late, but still is helpful that I found support groups in facebook like Breastfeeding Pinays, Muscat Mums Breastfeeding Support Group, La Leche League, etc. 

I suggest that if you're really keen and determined to exclusively breastfeed your baby, you have to do your reading, watching or attending classes before the actual D-day. There's so many benefits and advantages of breastfeeding that I'm sure you won't regret giving it to your baby. ;)

Danielle Cerisse

Aside from the usual question of "What's the baby's gender?", is "What's the baby's name?"

Deciding on our baby girl's name was hard. I wanted several names starting with my initial - Chloe, Callie, Cassandra, Cienna, Caitlin, Cielo, and Cienne. As for my husband's initial, there were only a few names that we would like to consider - Denisse, Daphne, Danielle, and Dominique.

We both decided to have it in a common way, baby will be having 2 names, first name will be after her dad's initial and second name would be after mine, so she was to be named Baby DC. I wanted the name Chloe so bad (loved this name since I was young and told myself that in the future, if Im going to have a baby girl, I'll name her Chloe. :) but it didn't go nicely with any of the D names which we wanted. So it was off the list. :( Maybe next time when we do have another girl (Of course, 1 child is not enough for us, at least 3 children I hope).

Another factor we considered was a name which came from the bible, and which will be meaningful. Again, I found very few names from the bible which starts with D and C which we like.

I always tell my sister of our plans, and ideas (she's my best friend by the way, and worst enemy when I was younger, haha, kidding!), and even with our baby naming, I told her of the names and how we wanted it, and she was also part of baby's name planning. She was the genius who suggested we name her Danielle Cerisse (now I feel like its her daughter instead of mine, haha).. Anyway, she's really good at it. She once suggested a name for one of our cousins, and the parents named the child as my sister suggested. I think I better call my sister as the Baby Namer, if there was a word as such. Even baby's nickname was suggested by my sister, she will be called Reese (just like Reese Witherspoon, or Reese chocolate).

Anyway, our reasons for finally naming our baby as DANIELLE CERISSE, aka REESE are..
- Baby's initials are after ours, Dabevon & Christianne..
- We wanted to have a name taken from the Bible since she is a gift from God, quite a few names in the Bible which are quite modern, but we also wanted the name Daniel, and his life story (Daniel and the Lion's den is quite the popular story in the book). So we just had to change the spelling a bit in order to make it the girly version of Daniel, which was Danielle. I also like the idea of naming my girls with a guy's name, just like mine. :D

Anyway, Daniel means "God is my judge", while Cerisse means "Cherry" (didn't I just say that she was more like my sister's daughter because my older sister's name is Cherry, haha).