Typically an umbilical cord stump will dry up and fall off a baby's belly button after 10 days from birth. Jeremy was very attached to his. It took just over 7 weeks for his to come off. After 4 weeks the doctors get scared that there is still some attempted communication through the remainder of the cord. They checked to make sure his kidneys were there. The doctor said if it didn't fall off in a certain amount of time then Jeremy would need surgery and they'd need to analyze everything to make sure there was no immune system or other problems.
After about 3 visits of silver nitrate to cauterize the area, the cord finally decided to fall off on its own. No surgery required. The nice doctor didn't even bill us for these 2 second treatments. She didn't want to bother with the insurance for something so minor. We like her. =)
Now Jeremy can get real baths instead of sponge baths. I'm sure he'll enjoy them much better.
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