We have now gone more than 50 days and our little guy's umbilical cord stump has yet to detach. We still have about 10 days before our next scheduled pediatrician appointment, so I decided to google information about this and learned of a couple of "1 in a million" scenarios that are serious about why Joe's cord could still be attached and got myself all paranoid.
We called our pediatrician and are waiting for a return phone call. I'm sure he'll just tell us to keep waiting. He has never made it seem like this is a big deal at all, so I'm guessing that it's just some strange thing that means nothing.
Unfortunately, as I was writing this post, Joey let out the most ear-piercing, hair-curling, life-altering scream. He has never done this in his entire 7 week life. It turned out to be painful gas. Nevertheless, between scaring myself with google searches and seeing him in pain for the very first time, I couldn't help bursting into tears. It's been a difficult evening, but after about 20 big farts, Joseph has drifted peacefully off to sleep. I'm sure there will be many more difficult evenings throughout the course of mommyhood -- I guess I'm glad I made it through my first.
I don't want to end this post on a 'downer', so here's a sweet new video of Joe. In the past week, he has learned to smile socially (not just because of pooping or something like that). He smiles quite frequently now and it just makes him all the more lovable.