Today started out with the bris for baby Ish.

Funny, he and I both cried much more over him getting clipped than we did over him getting born.

Seriously. He didn't really cry at all for the first 6 hours of his life. The snipping, however, seemed to be really painful.

But given the wine and the adrenaline pump, it didn't take long for him to snuffle himself back to sleep afterward.

After much Mazel Toving, I'm back home with the pooch-boy seriously considering a nap. Bartleby seems all in favor.

Mazel Tov to the baby...poor thing. I was a wreck when they did Mal's circumcision, but he rallied quickly. Of course, I was partially a wreck with worry that they'd do it wrong, since the doctor's only been doing them for a year (previously, all expats who wanted that service hired the rabbi here), and the first thing he said to me was "We don't do this, because the Turks do this."

So I was just hoping he wouldn't take out a lifetime of nationalistic fervor on my baby.

Oh dog. I'd probably have fainted under those circumstances. Today all we had to contend with from the otherwise amiable Rabbi was his blaming the baby's crying on the mother eating oriental food. He was difinitely a throwback...and had a whole Shecky (sp) Greene thing going on with the patter and stopping the action at. every. step. so that I could take a picture. This has to have been the most posed medical procedure of all time.

On the other hand, he's been doing it for 20 years and comes from a long line of moils, so it was easy to have confidence in his skill, if not his politics.

Raquel, how long did it take for Mal to heal? There wasn't much blood or anything this morning, and Ish's umbilical stump healed pretty quickly but I'm just wondering how long it will take for him to heal since he'll be, ya know, wetting on the wound.

Crumbs.

You all do this, don't you? The circumcision thing?

Huh.

I seem to recall the boys circs took way less time to heal than their belly buttons did. Maybe a week, Beej. The urine doesn't seem to bother it. I'd think it would too, but it doesn't. I slathered them in Vaseline though, every time I changed them, and it provides a pretty effective barrier, I think.

I'm pretty sure that a medical circumcision heals a bit differently than one done by a moyel, since the procedure itself is a bit different, usually.

What Cindy said. They gave us a little antibiotic ointment for once a day, and vaseline-covered gauze to keep the raw skin from sticking to other skin or diaper, and said to do that for a week. He was fine, it healed much faster than the cord stump, and didn't seem to cause him any discomfort.

Hey Fay...yep, we do. Some of us. I think about 50% of (non-Jewish) Americans do it. I left the decision to Mal's father, not feeling equipped to make that call.

You all do this, don't you? The circumcision thing?

Not everyone. But lots.

Hil, by different, do you mean surgical circs heal more quickly or slowly? There are different techniques among surgeons, as well. I used to know what they were, but those brain cells are gone.

You all do this, don't you? The circumcision thing?

Some people do apart from religious reasons. On the other hand, my husband's uncle accused all the next generation of of mutilating our sons' sex. Some research indicates female partners of circumcised males have lower rates of cervical cancer. Some research indicates circumcised males have lower rates of HIV infection. I was for it, because my own uncle had a medical need to have it done when he was in his 40s or so, and it seemed better to take care of it in infancy.