Ridiculously Stubborn Cord

I have to say we are very grateful to have a healthy and happy 3 week old baby boy...he was almost 9 pounds when he was born, so we know that he was getting plenty of nutrition while in the womb. That is all well and good, but the downside is that we now have a tiny black little friend who just won't seem to go away: the umbilical cord!

It just took us going to see our friends who had a baby boy 11 days after we had Micah, who's cord has already fallen off, to make us realize that this is not normal. We have been cleaning it with alcohol every time we change his diaper, just the way the pediatrician said to, and it is still very much attached. Last Thursday, we even went in to the pediatrician's office, and he put something on it that was supposed to dry it up faster...but all we have now is a cord we are still dealing with, only this now, when we clean it, Micah screams in pain....fabulous!

This is incredibly hard for a mother to sit there and watch her baby cry because he is in so much pain, but I know that we have to dig in there to have a prayer of drying this stubborn thing out! I felt like a failure as a mother because maybe we hadn't been cleaning it well enough from the beginning, and now we have to deal with this thing that hurts him all the time...it's just no fun.

So right now, I am sitting in the glider in Micah's room, watching my wonderful husband (who has agreed to do all the cord cleanings since I have a weak stomach when it comes to this) clean the painful cord, and try and dry the remaining little thread that is still attached. Micah at this point has cried himself to sleep on the changing table, and Leon is taking this opportunity to cut the dry, outer parts of the cord off, so that the inner core can be dried by the air, and hopefully fall off asap! (Don't worry, he isn't cutting the cord itself off).

I had to take a picture because it was so cute, and now that Micah isn't screaming, I can relax and talk about my pure and total hatred for this umbilical cord!

So please pray that it will fall off tonight....we certainly are! I have never heard of anyone having this problem with the cord, but if there is anyone out there who has, please let me know so I don't feel like a total loser! :)