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Umbilical cord, Starfleet 2001-02-13 There is a pregnant woman in my office who should be birthing in about a month. This morning I overheard her talking with some other moms, and they were discussing diapers. One of them said that she had used newborn diapers on her daughters until their umbilical cords fell off, and then she switched over to regular diapers. Well, this got me thinking. 1) Ewww. I mean, I'm aware that the cord is tied and then a short length of it hangs around for awhile. I even know that it turns kind of black before it falls off. But I just don't think about that on a daily basis. 2) What happens to the cords when they fall off? I'm sure that most of them just kind of remain in the child's clothes and then are thrown away (I can't imagine touching such a thing), but what if they just disappear? Like when you have a scab when you go to bed, but it's gone in the morning and you know it's in your bed but you can't find it. A scab is one thing but a nasty black umbilical cord is something else entirely. If you had a dog I'm sure it would be waiting for your kid's umbilical cord to fall off; you'd probably find the dog gnawing it shortly after it went missing. I love thinking about that because it's disgusting, but kind of funny, you have to admit. 3) How did the early humans figure out to tie the umbilical cord? And what would happen if you didn't tie it? Would your guts leak out? Would you have a hole in your belly? I imagine that you wouldn't live long if your umbilical cord wasn't tied, because it would seem like bacteria could get in there and cause an infection, but I just don't know. 4) Innies and outies. Do doctors try for one or the other? Are innies the standard and outies the mistakes, or is it the other way around? I have an innie, just to let you know. 5) Washing my navel makes me feel queasy, and my friend, Kim, says washing her navel makes her queasy too. Francisco concurs re: his navel and the queasiness (he doesn't like me to monkey with his navel--he yelps if I stick my finger in there). Is that true for everybody--does navel washing and/or monkeying make everyone queasy? I'm finished with the navel stuff now. In other news, this morning I saw a woman across the street from my office who was wearing what looked like a Starfleet uniform. Probably it was just a sweater with some weird red pattern on the shoulders, and then pants that matched the rest of the sweater (blue), but I would prefer to think it is a Star Trek getup. I have seen 'Trekkies', and I know what obsessions some people have with all things Star Trek. There's one woman who doesn't wear the uniform to work, but she wears her fake tricorder and fake phaser on her belt. She's a nut; I recommend 'Trekkies' (a recent-ish documentary) if you haven't seen it--it's quite entertaining. That's all for now, I guess. I hope you're having a great day.....
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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