Oh man, I can just see this going horribly awry and some horror story of an overbearing parent with boxes of her baby's teeth, and hair, and umbilical cord ending up on the STFU Parents blog.
I have a friend whose mother saved ALL of her baby teeth.
My mom kept a perfect baby book from the day of birth to the day I turned 5 years old. She kept all of the clothes I wore my first six months of life. She kept a lock of hair from my first hair cut.
I take tons of photos of my kids since I'm a photographer, but I don't keep clothes or teeth or hair or even baby books/scrapbooks. My mom "is sad" that I don't record every milestone they reach or cute thing they say.
@cake-or-death: MY MOM TOO! She's actually pissed that I didn't use the stupid calendar she bought me to record everything. We take photos and videos - those will be much more valuable to me than knowing the date of the first time he rolled over.
@Maritsa: @cake-or-death: I'm sort of jealous. I'm the youngest and therefore my "baby book" consists of a copy of my birth certificate and what looks like a baby tooth but may actually be a TicTac from the 70s.
That made me laugh, only because my uncle (the youngest of 4 children) always jokes about how there are so few photos, etc., of him compared to the rest of his siblings. I'm expecting my third and final child, and I'm making a mental note not to screw him or her out of photos!
@cake-or-death: I have to say that the gradual decline in photo-taking and other memory preservation as the child succession thing goes down the line is usually a direct reflection of a better understanding of the fact that time should be spent making memories, not recording them.
That's a good point. However, as someone who makes a living "recording memories" for other families, I'm almost always testing out new creative portrait photography ideas on my kids.
My son's umbilical stump was by far the grossest thing to come off/out of his body, and that is a crowded playing field of grossness right there. It went in the trash.
@Leucadia: It was oddly fascinating to my husband. He took a bunch of pictures and then we threw it out. But my husband likes to take pictures of stuff like his own eye, his fingerprints, and weird stuff.
@Maritsa: I had to google meconium. Was it really necessary for Wiki to include such large pictures?
I would lump meconium into the category of "stuff women just don't tell you about babies." See also, pooping during delivery.
@Bgirl_Hamster: If you're smart and have a good partner, you can avoid meconium. I made my husband change all of the diapers in the beginning. Also, I did not poop during delivery.
@SarahMC: It the baby "pooping" the freaky shit or whatever it's ingested while in the womb. You'll wish it was poop. It like when you're made a vampire and your body spews out all your human waste.
@SarahMC: My daughter pooped out meconium on the table when they put her down to first weigh her. Some babies do it in the womb, which creates a problem if they swallow/inhales it.
@Maritsa: Sometimes I think you don't want me to have children at all, dear. Eeeeeeew. It just goes to show you there’s always something new (and hideous) to learn about babies.
So when I was born my parents took me "Home" but it wasn't to our house--they were housesitting for a friend. It was the 1970s. There was shag carpeting. You can guess what became of my cord "plug."
In other news, I really didn't want to keep my kid's cord. I guess I'm just weird that way?
Oh sure, it's fine to save baby teeth, but if I want to save my baby's poop, I'm "crazy" and "unhygienic." Whatever! His diapers are magically intoxicating and reading them reveals the genius he will become. Katie Roiphe told me so.
My mother-in-law just gave me a baggie with the hair from my husband's first haircut - handed over to me as if it was the Hope Diamond. I admit to keeping the hair from my son's first haircut - but I don't know what the hay I'm supposed to do with my husband's. I have zero attachment to it because, well, he's not my kid.
@dreamweave: My mother was presented with my father's milk teeth by her new mother-in-law (my granny). "What am I supposed to do with these?" she thought, "Make them into a necklace?"
@bowleserised: I feel her pain. I think what we are supposed to do is keep this shit in a box in the attic for future generations to find and say "what am I supposed to do with this?", and then keep because they feel bad throwing it away. Humans are weird.
@SarahMC: I think it's more based on her sense of mother solidarity. She gave me the hair at a family dinner when my husband and I were both there, but she clearly gave them to ME, not her own flesh and blood. Because I'm the mom. I also now realize I have no idea what I did with it after we got home.
@SarahMC: Good point. My in-laws shipped all of their kids' stuff to them (not their spouses) when they moved. I would never do that to my kid's partner.
I had a "toothfairy box" when I was a kid, and I recently found it in a drawer while visiting my family. Inside? A tiny tooth from young Flackette, with the dried blood and nerve pulp still inside. My mom also has some of our baby teeth in her dresser drawer. I'm still not sure whether to be fascinated or grossed out.
@Flackette Goes Retro: In my mum's house the toothfairy box was just one of the decoration mugs my Mum had, since I couldn't reach them. I'm guessing she tossed them there and then forgot all about them.
She does keep my baby hair in some nice paper, there was so much of it to embarass me.
@Flackette Goes Retro: My mom gave me the box where she had saved ALL my baby teeth. But it stunk because some of the teeth were loose for a while, you know, and food got caught under them. I don't know where that box is now. Hopefully not in the clutches of a voodoo witch.
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My mom kept a perfect baby book from the day of birth to the day I turned 5 years old. She kept all of the clothes I wore my first six months of life. She kept a lock of hair from my first hair cut.
I take tons of photos of my kids since I'm a photographer, but I don't keep clothes or teeth or hair or even baby books/scrapbooks. My mom "is sad" that I don't record every milestone they reach or cute thing they say.
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That made me laugh, only because my uncle (the youngest of 4 children) always jokes about how there are so few photos, etc., of him compared to the rest of his siblings. I'm expecting my third and final child, and I'm making a mental note not to screw him or her out of photos!
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That's a good point. However, as someone who makes a living "recording memories" for other families, I'm almost always testing out new creative portrait photography ideas on my kids.
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Which is why photographers are excellent memory keepers. The memories can be preserved while the family members get to interact.
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Seriously, though - grosser than meconium??
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I would lump meconium into the category of "stuff women just don't tell you about babies." See also, pooping during delivery.
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I only saw it from like 3 feet away. I told my husband, I'm feeding him 42 times a day, therefore you're taking care of the by-products.
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In other news, I really didn't want to keep my kid's cord. I guess I'm just weird that way?
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She does keep my baby hair in some nice paper, there was so much of it to embarass me.
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