Moistness
September 23rd, 2008
At this moment I have, count them, three bodily fluids soaking into my pretty shirt.
– breast milk (I’m leaking like no ones business)
– urine (the pee-pee cover shifted during M’s sponge bath and I got sprayed down)
– cord stump grossness (can’t wait till that thing falls off)
This mother thing is not so glamourous, but I’m loving it! (Though not so much the lack of sleep part). So for all of you that read my blog, be prepared for more baby info than you ever really needed. I’m up at all hours with little else to do, but enjoy my baby and document the entire thing.
I’ve been a lurker on your blog for a while (by way of Timemachine), but am finally compelled to comment in response to your cord leakage issue. In case you aren’t already completely inundated by it, you’ll probably get a lot of unsolicited baby advice from family, friends, and old ladies in the checkout queue at the drug store. And damn if it isn’t all just so annoying. But on this particular issue, I wish someone had enlightened me earlier, so I feel it is my karmic duty to add my own unsolicited advice to the fray. I hope you don’t mind…
When our son was about 2 weeks old, his cord got pretty moist and developed an impressive funk. We’d read somewhere not to do anything to the stump until it falls off, but if it starts to ooze nastiness, it poses an infection risk. This was rightly pointed out to us by an alarmed nurse when his stump goo began to bleed through his onesie. We started wiping the cord down with isopropanol on a q-tip after diaper changes, which helped a whole lot. It also speeds the cord drop pretty dramatically. You may wish to give it a go. I don’t know why they tell you not to treat the stump with alcohol right away. I sure wished we’d started on it earlier.
By the way, your Maddox is completely adorable! Congratulations and best wishes to you all.
Hello lurker! As of yet I still welcome advice, I don’t claim to know what I’m doing – well not yet anyway. Actually we were told by UCSF to do that alcohol swab thing. They didn’t tell us at the hospital but the nurse they sent for a home visit 2 days later told us, then the doc at our first pediatric appointment today told us again. They both even gave us a ton of mini alcohol wipes which are great for on the go or the second changing area. They say the cord stump smelling of rotting flesh is totally normal. It’s not infected or anything, which is great. I’m trying to avoid dressing him in anything too cute so as to avoid cord blood stains.
Thank you for the happy thoughts!