UGH UGH UGH!

Athena's umbilical stump is infected. I am taking her to Urgent Care at 8:00 to have them look at it. I noticed the foul smell last night but chalked it off to stinky baby syndrome but today it was super noticeable. I almost feel like its a penance I have to pay to smell it as I find myself constantly comfort feeding her today. Our little baby who would eat and sleep keeps eating and waking and crying today.

The new policy at St. Mary's was to leave the stump alone and let the "special enzymes" found in the cord heal it. Of course that strategy wouldn't work for us. Those rare cases of infected cords, and newborn teeth have to happen to Athena. I pray to god that this is where the special rare cases end and she goes on to be an exceptionally happy and healthy baby/toddler/kid/teenager/adult.

I'll update later on what the doctor says. For the moment she is sleeping in the cradle swing, jacked up to high. I had turned on the soothing noise as loud as possible to help her to go sleep. I am not looking forward to waking her up and putting her in the carseat that might bump the cord, figuring out what clothes to put her in for the trip and ..blah blah blah. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have put her in onsies but T-shirts and just a diaper. I thought that the onsie would be breathable enough to allow for air circulation without letting the cord get bumped or irritated by feeding and holding and what not. We should have just cleaned it with alcohol like we did with Morella because we had no problems with her cord.