umbilical cord. few questions

[confuzed90]

My baby is 9 days old, his cord has still not fell off.its very dry and looks and has looked like its going to fall off for the past few days, however it has now started bleeding a bit, is that normal?

Dds chord finally fell off (with a bit of encouragement!) after 12 days! Just keep it clean with cotton wool & water

I've been told my the midwife not to clean it just leave it, like I did with my first and his fell off at 5 days x

They always come off eventually! Things that make them stay on (a) a very clean birth ie CS (b) antibiotics in mum or baby. Both of these stop the baby developing a nice crop of normal skin bacteria which digest the dead tissue of the cord and make it fall off. This is why your mw is telling you not to clean it!

Same happened here, it's normal for it to bleed a little bit like just specs on the nappy. Think my ds was about 2 weeks when his eventually came off, it was hanging by a thread for a while!

My baby's came off on day 10, I found it in the foot of his babygrow after much searching in the vest and nappy!
We were told to keep it dry above all else, so we didn't clean it apart from the time it got a load of poo on it. In the two days before it came off we saw small specks of blood on his vest.

mayhew, now that IS interesting! That explains why DD3 kept hers for 2 weeks. She was a CS and got large doses of antibiotics at birth and for the first week.

My DD1 was born via VB and hers came off after 5 days. DD2 was ELCS and it took 2 weeks!

I still have both the dc's cords

Me too!

In some cultures, keeping the umbilical stump (particularly mothers/daughters) supposedly brings good luck to the child.

I like to think so :)

i kept the cords of all 5 of mine as well, i just sealed it in a little freezer bag type thing and its with their baby books, lots of people think its gross!

i never heard the good luck thing before, i just kept it because it was interesting, but now i have a 'reason' i can give other than just being odd

Haha!! I'm verrrrrry careful about who I tell about keeping the cord stumps! You know you're onto a loser when you see the furrowed brow 'look' appear before any form of speech. I'm guessing that my girls will think I'm a right freak when I show them the stumps at some point in the future lol

Like you 5madthings (love your screen name,btw) I would have kept the stumps even without knowing about them being some kind of biological good-luck talisman! I find it really beautiful; to preserve a part of the lifeline that once connected them to you. A connection that never really breaks.

lunarlyte to be fair i dont go around telling people but for AGES ds4's and dd's sat in the kitchen windowsill, every now and then a guest/visitor would pick them up and say 'what is this' and the look of horror on their faces when i told them, lol they couldnt put them down quick enough

my boys think they are cool, well the older 3 do, ds4 and dd are too young to understand what they are. also ds1 was at the birth off dd and he cut the cord, so i think its special that he did that and we have the stump :)

and yes i agree its a very special connection.

thanks for liking my name, i only just changed it, iwas 4madboys but as i have a dd now (well she is 17mths but took me a while to change) i figured i should include her as well! :)

Two weeks with a CS here too, interesting! DS's did bleed a bit and had that jelly stuff too which was ick but just fell off in the end. Had to stop dog dating it :o

Um, eating it, not dating it!

He was a VB at 40+3! And on day 10 and its still on. Midwife checked it today and said it is seperating but is still attached on the bottom.
I do open his nappy waiting for the suprise!
It also absolutely stinks today, which I know is normal but I keep thinking he's pood! Xx

The smell (cheesy feet) is the bacteria breaking it down?.

Yea midwife said that, she said its actually gangrene! :O