Did I tell you this one yet? About the belly button? It’s been so long since I posted I’ve forgotten.
There have been a lot of scrumptuous little newborns in the office lately. I love newborns; they’re quick and easy to examine, usually perfectly healthy and they bring their parents who are almost always gratifyingly eager to hear what I have to say; they smell nice and look cute and most of all remind me of my chihuahua, which I absolutely adore and treat like a baby. In fact, when I watch parents fawning over their little babies it occurs to me that that is what I look and feel like when I’m with my little pooch. I just love this dog.
My real kids are teenagers and we all know there’s nothing too cute about our species at that stage of life. So I hadn’t had that “new baby” feeling for quite some time. Most of you know I keep reptiles as pets. Lots of snakes in my home, lizards and tortoises too. But they’re more cool than cuddly.
We found this little dog a couple years ago; a stray, on the street, skinny and cold and beat up. I walked in the door with this pitiful little creature on Thanksgiving morning and I’m not kidding, the first thing my wife said was, “Can we keep him?” And after a reasonable search for his prior owner, we did, named him Pavo (which is “Turkey” in Spanish), and I tell you… if I would have known how much happiness a little brown dog would give my wife I’d have found one years ago!
Well, me too. It’s like having a baby, all the good things about having a baby I mean, and it stays that way. I got all those nice warm-baby-in -the-house fuzzies every day now. I could go on and on about him, about his playfulness, his reliably eager greeting every time I come home from work, some of the silly things he does… but I know that’s a bore… and I’m off track…
Something about belly buttons… So I walk into an exam room to find another young couple and their newborn, first child, and right off the bat mom tells me that the baby’s umbilical cord stump – that leathery thing that hangs from the belly button on newborns until it withers and falls off – had indeed fallen off the day prior.
I was reminded of another couple, from Bosnia or Turkey or somewhere I can’t exactly recall, who jumped out of their seats to stop me after I removed their baby’s cord stump and moved toward the trash with it. “Wait! We need that!” they blurted. “Really?” I asked, handing it to the father who carefully wrapped it in tissue, “What for?”
The father explained that in his culture it is customary for hopeful parents to retain the umbilical cord stump and deposit it somewhere they want their child to follow. Like if they aspire for their child to attend a fine university, they secretly bury the stump somewhere on campus at Harvard or some other school like that. Or if they want her to be a world traveler they might toss it into the ocean or something.
Interesting right? I hear stuff like that all the time in my practice, we get such incredible ethnic diversity amongst our patients.
Anyway, I’m telling this little story to the young new parents the other day and the mother is kind of getting into it; “Hey that’s really neat, I like that, what did you do with it honey?” she asks her husband. And with a sheepish look and apprehension in his voice he answers with impeccable comedic timing, “I threw it in the garbage.”
I should have seen that coming. Oops. Not sure where that will lead, but no point speculating. I’m sure she’ll do fine.
Funny post. Brings to mind an encounter with my hubbie post newborn baby. It was a gorgeous weekend afternoon, we were happily strolling with our bundle in the city. Ducked into a lovely vegetarian restaurant in Wriglyville for an intimate outdoor garden type lunch. Ordered our meal, enjoyed a nip or two when another group’s lively conversation wafted into our thoughts and serenity. It was a vocal group of earthy-type parents, all openly nursing newborns in the restaurant and discussing the various uses for their babys’ placentas……which were all stored in the freezer. One was couple was going to dry theirs, another bury it under a tree, and a third, incorporate it into their child’s food in some way. Eeeek! Check, please. The funny thing is, my doctor and I were later talking about it, and she reported she got all sorts of unusual placenta requests. I believe she once had someone who was going to make a wreath out of it or something….Unfortunately, we avoided that establishment thereafter. However, upon delivering my second child, I turned to the nurse and said “Show me his placenta!”
Dr. Sagan…we’re Turkish
Kathy…I asked to see the placenta with my second child too, only out of curiousity.
When our first daughter’s cord dropped off, throwing it away just didn’t seem “right”. Three years later, the gnarly-looking thing that was once an integral part of growth for her, resides in a bejeweled mint container in my bedside table.
Still seeking an equally beautiful mint container for her sister’s cord.
Each of our three stumps were consumed, eagerly, by one of our dogs. You might consider keeping the unwanted stumps for Pavo. I’m guessing he’d at least bother to chew – they’re just his size. A Shepherd swallows it whole of course… Or, perhaps one of your reptiles would enjoy at least playing around with a stump, but I’d keep it out of the water!