July 3, 2007

In my arms I hold two things, both of which came out of me (not the plastic container, but what's inside it) (not the jumper, but what's inside it). Today we buried one and reaffirmed our decision to keep the other.

The other, after all, is so much cuter than what's in the plastic container; it really wasn't that hard a choice.

If you haven't guessed by now, that thing in the plastic container is my and the Littlest Thteed's, placenta.

Yup, you heard me right. That bloody thing in there is what he lived in inside my uterus. And since his birth, it (the placenta) has been residing in that plastic container in our fridge. Much to the chagrin of my mother who has been staying with us. "Ahck! What are you going to do with this!?"

Which is a reasonable question and a question I asked myself when my midwife asked me if we would like to keep it and take it home. I did not expect to be asked this. I did not get asked this with the Big O, but that was probably because he was a C-section and that placenta was completed depleted. The doctor described it as having grey hairs and being the oldest placenta he had ever seen. Theric says it was green, like undyed meat left in the butcher's display for too many weeks. Ew.

When she asked me if I wanted it, I, not having thought about it prior, said yes. So they packaged it up and after it hung around on the floor of my recovery room for about 15 hours, Theric took it home and put it in the fridge. Where it has been for the past two weeks.

I decided against making placenta stew or a placenta cocktail. Instead I decided to put it in the garden and plant a rose on top of it. Mentioning this to my midwife, she advised us to be sure to put it in a hole at least two feet deep to keep animals like dogs, cats and raccoons, from trying to dig it up and eat it--yhuck! I began to wonder if I really wanted to take it home.

Today Theric dug the hole and we planted the placenta. On top of that went the white Iceberg climbing rose my mother bought, which I am sure she did to expedite the placenta's removal from our fridge. All this was done in honor of the Littlest Thteed. Part of he and me is in the ground, in our yard, providing nutrients to a plant.

Welcome to earth little guy.

You can go over to Theric's blog for some footage of the event. Be warned: It's gruesome.