Release the "mommy guilt," cut yourself some slack and take a little "me" time. I'm hoping to combine a cup of fact, and sprinkle in just enough of my own experience along with a dash of my failures to help you see that no matter the recipe you are a better mother than you give yourself credit for! If you have come looking for perfect punctuation and spelling, well then you are in the wrong place. In fact I am totally one of those people who use punctuation as an accessory. Ya know? Like hair bows.



If you need REAL advice from REAL working and stay at home mom's on pregnancy, childbirth and everything from the newborn to teenage year's. You have come to the right place! Sit back, relax, contribute your comments and......don't forget to take time to smell the baby lotion.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

How many of your child's umbilical cord stubs did you keep?

You heard me. Lol. I'm just wondering, we've discussed placenta eating and frankly I thought that through my six years working postpartum I had seen most everything. Well, I forgot one special little thing. Ya learn something new everyday. Met an interesting individual today that wanted the section of the babies umbilical cord that was trimmed down. When questioned as to what said individual was going to do with the cord section, "I just want to keep it as a keep sake." My response, "ok, as long as you aren't eating it or anything I guess." "Nope, just wanna put it in a baggie and save it"
OMG! For reals!? I tried to keep the non-judgemental me in check. I thought. Hu, maybe it would have been nice for my mom to keep my cord stub. Nope, nope. No desire to see that crunchy little nugget. But, I found after a good round of Google that I may perhaps be in the minority here. Seems that many women keep the cord stump as a symbol of that precious connection to their baby/child. Something tangible as the child grows and matures that they can use to remember those 9 months of current connection. I even found where some cultures consider it to be good luck. Like a lucky rabbits foot or something. I could always use a little good luck. I even found the following in my searching, "We planted a tree in our backyard and buried our sons stump under it with a silver dollar. According to Native American legend this is supposed to ensure the child grows big and strong like a tree and always has $ in his pocket."
Did you save any of your children's umbilical stumps? I'm just curious. I don't see any health concerns with keeping your child's umbilical stump but what is the personal/significance behind it? Enlighten me. I need it.

Now, another one of those moments that will make you as a mother frown upon me and feel better about yourselves. My 10 yr old calls me this morning as he is getting ready for school,
"mom, I want to have some of those chocolate chips."
"Well, ok buddy, but shouldn't you have some like, real breakfast food?"
"I don't know."
"How about a piece of toast bud?"
"Na."
"Ok, well, what do you want then?"
pause......thinking.....
"Um, BACON?"
"Ok bud. Bacon I guess." (we have the fully cooked microwave bacon so the boy child can fix it for himself in the microwave)

Yep, mother of the freaking year! My kid had a breakfast of chocolate chips and bacon. I had a good laugh over it, as well as with my friends at work. If only I could eat chocolate chips and bacon for breakfast and be at least 30 lbs under weight for my age. LOL!

2 comments:

  1. Mmm. Bacon.

    Also, I saved Brayden cord stump. Then, like a year later I threw it away and never saved any of the other kids'. It felt wrong to throw it away, honestly, but having it sit in a baggy in my hope chest wasn't doing any good either. It's not like I pulled it out and reminisced, ya know? I defintely would never want to see it framed or anything. Ew. Can you imagine bringing a date home and them seeing this little dried up cord in a frame? "Johnny, what's that?" "Oh, that's my umbilical cord! Isn't it awesome?" Seriously cut the cord already...and throw it away. ;)

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  2. My mom saved ours in our baby books. My mother in law wanted my babies cords so she could bury them by the temple. A tradition for their family, I guess. I've heard worse :-)

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