Adventures are something everyone looks forward too. My wife and I have had many adventures both together and before we met. We both have been to multiple countries, have enjoyed meeting new people, trying new things, and overall have done a great deal in our lives so far. We have been married almost 5 years now and decided 3 years ago to start the adventure of having kids. We work with children for a living as children’s pastors so when we decided to start our own family we weren’t sure how different it would be - we are surrounded by kids 50% of our time anyway, what would another 50% change right?.
So after a year of trying and 9 months of pregnancy (my wife, not me), our little girl, Kaylee, was born. What I thought would be one big adventure has turned into daily adventures of hilarity, insanity, tiredness, craziness and most overall awesomeness. With this site, I’m hoping to share some of these adventures as well as have a place my wife, Kristin, and I can look back on and remember the crazy amounts of adventures we have had with Kaylee, and our future kids.
One of the first most vivid moments I can remember is the day the umbilical cord finally fell off. First of all, how nasty are those things? I know they say people aren’t born with tails, but isn’t that basically what an umbilical cord is - a tail coming out of our stomach? Of course, the tail... I mean umbilical cord does come off after a short while, so dreams of being able to swing from trees from a stomach tail are only for those who are still in the beginning stages of life. We were instructed by the nurse to make sure to keep the cord clean by using a q-tip and rubbing alcohol. She told us to be gentle when touching the cord so we wouldn’t hurt the baby. She then very quickly said to not be so careful you don’t get it clean around the base. This of course is in direct violation of another nurse who said the q-tip and alcohol method was outdated and not to use it. That second opinion is in direct opposition of a parenting website which said to rub guacamole on it so it stays nice a moist, kind of like that facial stuff girls put on at night. Anyways, we went with the keep it clean method and constantly debated whether we were being gentle enough or if we were not getting to the “base” of the cord. The umbilical cord was supposed to fall off within 2-4 weeks, but we found ourselves around the 5 week mark with Kaylee’s stomach tail still hanging on for dear life. I guess Kaylee really wanted to swing from trees hands and feet free! Kristin and I couldn’t wait for the thing to go though, it looked like a shriveled up freeze dried banana that had been on the counter for weeks...
One night Kristin and I are getting Kaylee ready for bed. This included a bath, change of clothes, and all the other usual stuff. Kristin went to the other room to get her some pajamas while I finished up. Kaylee was getting a little upset and possibly a little cold so I picked her up after I had her diaper on. She calmed down pretty quick, so I put her down on the changing table, when I noticed “it” was gone. The stomach tail was missing. I quickly looked around. It was no where to be found (yes I realize those two sentences rhyme. I’m reading a lot more Dr. Seuss now a days). Her little belly button was bleeding a bit and overall was pretty disgusting looking. I still wanted to know where that tail was when all of a sudden I look down and see it. The cord was caught on my shirt! It was trying to burrow its way into my belly button. I quickly smacked the alien invader off, and then called Kristin in the room to figure out what to do with Kaylee’s new belly button. We weren’t sure how to react so we did what any other 20 something parents of the 21st century would do - we pulled out our camera phones and sent a picture to our parents to ask them what to do. While awaiting a response the inni and outi belly button theories others had mentioned came to mind. Supposedly if you, but a silver dollar over the belly button you are 100% guaranteed to make it an inni. After a quick rehash of the methods, we decided to let nature take its course as to whether Kaylee would have an inni or outi belly button.
We ended up just cleaning out her belly button, and all was well. My parents actually laughed at me for sending them a picture. Once Kaylee was set and heading to bed, I had to find where I had swatted the remains of her stomach tail... luckily Alf, our dog, hadn’t eaten it. In case you are wondering, I threw away the remaining umbilical cord. I know there are people out there that will save it and make it into a teddy bear or something, but that’s not my cup of tea. The thing did after all try to attack me.
Umbilical cords are not much fun, but they make for one great adventure!
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