Finally, a real bath.

Well it happened... After a middle of the night feeding, I was about to place a very sleepy Alyssa back into her bassinet, when in the dim light I spied something really nasty looking there. I almost screamed because I thought it was a big ugly bug that I'd come painfully close to laying my precious newborn on. But I turned the light on to discover it was actually the remains of Alyssa's belly button.

Still pretty gross if you ask me.

Funny thing about motherhood... suddenly most things that were once absolutely disgusting to me, poop, pee, spit-up, boogers, etc. no longer bother me much when they're coming from one of my own kids. But for some reason, the brown dried up stumpy belly button thing... BLECH!

NO, in case you're wondering, I will not be saving that for the scrapbook. I was thrilled to hear the nurse say they'd changed their thinking on newborn belly-button care. Three years ago when Amanda was brand new, we were supposed to carefully clean her belly button a few times a day with alcohol swabs - a job I detested like no other. It was a powerful bargaining chip for Scott since I was willing to do just about anything else as long as he would handle belly-button duty. This time around they said we didn't have to do anything at all. Yup, apparently it would dry up and fall off without any assistance. And it did!

So in the wee morning hours, Alyssa and I celebrated her little belly-button milestone by performing a special ritual... I got a big wad of toilet paper, yanked the nasty little stump out of the bassinet and flushed it ceremoniously with the same amount of respect I would have given a big hairy spider. Good riddance!

And then today, it was time to give Alyssa her first real bath. I love this "first", probably because I love the "freshly-bathed baby" part so much. I wasn't freaked out about the first bath like I was with Amanda because this time around I was much more confident in my ability to do it without her slipping from my grasp. I was far more concerned about timing the bath properly so that Scott would be willing to take time out from watching football to take a few pictures.

Alyssa seemed to thoroughly enjoy bathtime. I'm pretty sure she was loving that warm water. And I'm loving that I get to cuddle with her and inhale her fresh, clean, Johnson's no-tears shampoo baby smell. Ahhhhhhhh...