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).

Reese's 2nd month!

Seems like it was just yesterday when I gave birth to my adorable baby girl, and now she's completed her 2nd month.. They were right, babies do grow up fast. When she was just a newborn, I would wish for her to grow up soon so that I can carry her without having to support her head and neck with my other hand (since I was having a hard time with a newborn), that she would be able see so I can play with her and make her smile, and that she would be able to crawl already, then eventually learn to walk and so on.. but realizing now that they really do grow up fast, now there are times that I would wish that she would just remain this cute, tiny creature without any cares in the world, and would only sleep, feed and cry at times, haha!

On our visit to her paediatrician for her 2nd month check up, she weighed 5 kg, and with a length of 56 cm. Her previous weight and height were at 4 kg and 53 cm. Thanks God for her continuous growth and for the good health He has given her, and no sicknesses until now.

Her activities/milestones:
* sleeps and feeds (of course)
* stretches too much (that it gets hard for her grandma to hold her when she does so better put her in bed and let her stretch all she wants)
* smiles while awake (this time, I saw her first real smile at mommy last Sep 12.. aww.. priceless!)
* laughing (before and during her sleep.. good that I was able to take a video of her once)
* lifts her head up (for longer seconds now)
* turns her head from side to side
* grasping our finger to lift her body up
* looks at your face
* didn't cry during bath time (and was looking at grandma and mommy while we bathed her.. first time without crying exactly on her 2nd month, Sep 13, and I hope its just the start of the many no-crying-her-lungs-out-during-bath times to follow, haha)
* 2nd vaccines - 1st dose of Rotarix

2nd month pictures:

Reese's 1st month!

Wow, my baby has completed 1 month! Happy 1st month, my darling.. As me and my husband had agreed on, we'll be celebrating her monthly growth with a cake (which is a must, and an excuse for mommy to eat, haha!). But since it was her first month, we planned to have more than cake, we ha a simple party and invited friends over to our house to celebrate with us.

On her visit to her paediatrician for her 1st month check up, she weighed 4 kg, and with a length of 53 cm. Previous weight and height were 3 kg and 50 cm on the day she was born. Thanks God for her growth and for the good health He has given her.

Her activities/milestones:
* sleeps and feeds (everyday! I can't remember a day when she was able to stay awake for a long time. oh well, at least she's quiet and doesn't get irritated or fussy)
* lifts her head up (especially when burping or winding.. though she still tends to make a headbang)
* smiles (aww.. such a lovely smile she's got)
* 1st vaccines - BCG and Hepa B (at the hospital before being discharged)

1st month pictures:

Baby Reese has finally arrived!

My due date was around 25-27th of July. Anyway, here's a recap of the events leading to the most awaited arrival:

July 2- had my 3D and 4D ultrasounds and already on my 37th week, which means that baby is already full term, yey! Good thing that I was able to experience 4D before I delivered. Found out that baby is doing well, already on the right position (head down) for coming out and confirmed its a girl (whew, what a relief! Haha!)

July 6 morning - Friday service and I scheduled myself to do one last visuals for the 9am service before I deliver my baby. So, so thankful to a brother in Christ, Sagar, who willingly accepted to step up and take my place while I'm on my maternity leave, and I'm sure God will bless him for his great work.

July 6 afternoon - Hubby's 2nd basketball game playing for Brgy. Ginebra in Seeb Basketball court which was a best of 3 game between them and Pinoy Kargo. They won, yey! If they didn't become champions that day, hubby was surely not allowed to play in the last game (probably will be July 13, since games are held only during Fridays) as I dont want to risk having my water bag/membrane rupture there and look like I peed on my pants or to feel labor pains and look stupid having to call my hubby out in the middle of the game, haha. Headed to Coach Art's home for the victory celebration, and for me, I see it more as my ticket to unlimited food intake because they always prioritize the kids plus the preggy one when it comes to food. How could I get so lucky, right? :)) Hoping it will not wear off after I deliver, haha.

July 7-11 - another work week, and hopefully my last for now. I did manage to come to work for 4 days and excuse my monday for a sick leave because I also had my weekly checkup that day.

July 9 - my weekly check up and my 1st IE experience (ouch!) and fetal heartbeat monitoring plus my contractions were monitored for around 20 mins.

July 11 - last workweek day! Good that I managed to prepare all my work endorsements before going home. I dont know why but I really felt that I will not be able to come to work on Saturday (July 14) as I have a feeling that I'll be delivering during the weekend (now I understand what they call as mother's instinct). So I told one of my staff to make sure that she already knows everything because I told her I have a gut feeling that I wont be in the office on Saturday (not just because Im feeling lazy again), and she said "No, you'll still be here on saturday I am sure".

July 12 - thursday and a weekend. Hubby and I planned to do some early morning walking. I woke up at 5am, couldn't return to sleep so I was able to do my walking and stairs climbing for 30mins at around 7:30am. My hubby on the other hand, did his part of walking in his sleep. Haha. After that, I had my breakfast and slept. I woke up around 3pm, peed and feeling hungry, I headed towards the dining room to see whatever I can have. While I was in the living/dining room, I felt a trickle of pee on my underwear, thinking to myself that maybe I wasn't able to release all my pee earlier but thinking that it could also mean my water bag breaking, I headed back towards our room's toilet. While I was in the toilet, the water just flowed and I wasn't able to stop any of it at all, so I realized that was not another pee, but my water bag. I didn't panic because I knew that it was only the start and because the color of the water was just clear white, nothing to be worried about. I then called my husband who was just right in time to reach home, told him what happened. I went to the toilet to take my bath and seeing me, hubby said you're still going to take a bath now (he didn't know anything about the signs or what will happen so he thought I was just plain crazy to even take a bath and not go to the hospital immediately)and I told him of course, first I dont want to deliver smelling awful today and embarass myself from the doctors and nurses, and second, I didnt plan to immediately take a bath after delivering just to be on the safe side. Upon reaching the hospital, I was then admitted and checked by my OB, and informed that I surely wasn't going to deliver that day. She knew that I really wanted to have a normal delivery but my contractions didn't start yet so she said she'll let the contractions start. As in I really felt no pain at all, so I kept joking that I was having a painless delivery, haha. Hubby posted my status on fb so that family and friends can also pray for me. Dr. said I need to get some sleep/rest for tomorrow's delivery, but how could I with all the anticipation, anyway she gave me a medicine to take so I was really able to doze off. By the way, I was just 1 cm when she checked me.

July 13 - The judgement day. Nurses checked if I was contracting early morning but I said I'm still not able to feel any pain.. Not even the slighest pain. Dr. checked as well and instructed that I start taking pitocin (to induce my labor or contractions) and hopefully my cervix would dilate to 10 cm within 6 hrs as she said final time will be up to 1pm only. If progress is not enough for a normal delivery, then I have no choice but have an emergency C-section. We prayed and we knew that whatever delivery its going to be, it is God's plan and at that point it doesn't matter already, as long as our baby's safe and healthy. After 6-7 hrs with pitocin, my cervix was only 2cm so there's no way I was going to have a normal delivery, and I accepted my fate. I trusted the doctors and prayed to God for a smooth operation.

I was then prepared for operation, injected at the back with a spinal block and then I went completely numb and sleepy but tried my best to stay awake during the operation so that I could hear my baby's first cry and see her at least. I just felt that the doctors were like pushing and pulling from my stomach, as if playing tug of war.. And finally, at 1:43pm, she came out of me with a cry and it felt so good because I knew that she was ok, and I could see her soon. They immediately cleaned her up, clothed her and finally showed her to me.. And though I was too groggy, I smiled when I saw her.. I tried to say something but no sound came from my mouth, but deep inside, I was bursting with joy.

And so, DANIELLE CERISSE, aka REESE came out into this world on July 13, 2012, Friday at 1:43 pm (Muscat time), weighing exactly 3 kg and measuring 50 cm.

Here is her picture right after she came out of mommy's tummy as captured by her happy daddy. She seemed different from most of the other babies because her eyes were wide open.

And some more photos during her first few days when we were still in the hospital, all captured during her favorite activity - sleeping. :)

We praise & thank God for such a wonderful daughter (and may I add cute, which is just a bonus) that He blessed us with, He really made all our waiting worth it.

Baby Girl Checklist

I tend to be organized at times, and when I need to prepare for any event, I usually prepare something in Excel (one of my favorite tools in MS office I must say), as long as I'm in the mood. I made so many checklists already - for my wedding, vacations/outings, etc.. I must say, all have been helpful to me as I dont want to go on an outing/event and remember when I'm already at the place that I missed something. So I have a print-out of my checklist, and I just take 1 everytime I need it. Maybe I'll have it laminated later on.


With the expected arrival of our baby girl, I got excited again.. Searched for different sites for tips on what I need to have and buy for my baby, so expect that some of the items on my list are actually exaggerated.

If anyone wants a copy, just let me know, I can send you this checklist plus my Outing-Vacation Checklist. :D

Hand-me-downs

I for one, have nothing against hand-me-downs.. Ever since I was a child, I was already used to it, being the youngest daughter in a brood of 3, I have an older brother, and an older sister. So most of my things which came from my sister were hand-me-downs. Whatever fits me, then I can still use it, but when I started growing bigger than her (and I still am until now), then that was the time when I had to stop using her clothes, shoes, etc.

As for our expected baby, we really saved a lot with her clothes because most of it were just given to us.. whether its new or used, we really didn't care because I had heard lots of advices from mothers/parents that its really not a practical/wise decision to buy newborn clothes because babies grow big fast, as in FAST.. most of them even said that most of the clothes they bought were worn only once or twice, which I have observed based on the clothes I've received, some of them even looks new. And babies always smell good and are always clean, so I dont think its even an issue to use someone else's clothes (as long as you wash them first of course, plus iron just to be on the safe side). The only thing which cannot be shared from one baby to another I believe is a used diaper. haha! Im not ashamed to take any free stuff when anybody offers to give us their baby's old items, even if we don't use it, then we can also hand it over to others who will have a better need for it later on.

Mind you, we didn't receive just clothes, but everything else from friends and even those we really didn't know (thanks to a facebook group in Oman called Muscat Mums, because they would even advertise free items they would want to get rid of) - bathing items, new diapers, cots/cribs, playards, car seats, shoes, and lots more.

In short: Baby has so many nice and cute clothes already, plus mom & dad were able to put her money into a better use - buying her other necessities and furniture, and saving it for her diapers.