A majority of this weekend was spent doing taxes and shopping for a new couch. I dont think Ive had a single thought that wasnt related to one of those two endeavors in the past 48 hours. As thats the case, this is going to be a very short post. Im going upstairs now to read the paper.
Oh, I do have one thing to share though, something one of Linettes friends mentioned to her a few days ago. Apparently this woman, Linettes friend, has a sister-in-law who wouldnt allow the doctor to cut the umbilical cord when her baby was born. She took the baby and the placenta, connected, home from the hospital. She said that it was the “natural” way.
(I wonder if the hospital made her buckle both the baby and the placenta into their own car seats before allowing them to leave.)
So, the two things stayed connected until the umbilical cord between them rotted away. I think Linette said that it took over a week. Up until that point, the mother would carry the baby around in her arms while the father would follow right along behind with the placenta, sloshing around in a plastic shopping bag.
Im guessing they didnt leave the house much, but I wonder how people on the street would react to the site of two people carrying bundles connected by a few feet of rotting umbilical cord (Does someone out there have a contact at Candid Camera?)
To my knowledge, my friend Jeff over at The West Virginia Surf Report hasnt ever mentioned this practice, but it sounds like something that his sister-in-law, Nancy, might have done. If theres anything else further to the bat-shit crazy side of the parenting continuum, Im not aware of it. Ive heard of people saving placentas and planting them. Ive even heard of people grinding up and cooking placentas, and then serving them to guests on crackers. But somehow the idea of keeping your beautiful new baby tethered to a grey slab of un-refrigerated, rotting flesh strikes me as worse.
On that note, I need to go up to read.
I hope you all had nice weekends.
