Jewish Jackson

Nowadays (is that how you spell that?? Is it even a real word??) this seems to be a controversial subject. I'm not sure if it's a regional thing or what. Around here it's very common but to my cyber friends abroad you may condemn me. I beg you if you are reading this and you have a problem with circumcision in any way STOP READING NOW!!!! My purpose is not to get into a discussion of right or wrong. My purpose is to tell an amusing story of thinking outside the box which too few people do.

When Jackson was born we asked the OB to do the deed. She said he was born too small and she didn't feel comfortable doing it. After we left the hospital Dr. C told us a pediactric urologist would have to do it and he would be put under general anesthesia! we thought that was quite unnecessary for something that is perfomed on a daily basis with numbing cream. We knew there had to be a way around this. I called a jewish temple in my town to find out if they ever do non-ceremonial circumcisions. I spoke to a mohel and the next day I was at his house having the procedure done at 4 months old! we had to pay him $200 but we would have run into insurance issues if we had had it done at the hospital (which never would have happened...it wasn't THAT important to me)

Now I have to defend and justify myself a little. One of the reasons people say that circs are unnecessary is that if you teach your son how to clean it you won't have a problem with possible infection. Ok, I believed that. But are you telling me that when your son is 12 years old and going through the whole "i'm not taking a shower" phase that you're going to be on him to make sure his penis is being cleaned properly?????
THEN, the mohel told me that for some babies it IS necessary to remove the foreskin in order to clean it properly. If the foreskin is loose then it isn't necessary to remove it because it is easily moved around in order to clean. If it is tight it can be too difficult and often painful to pull it back in order to clean. He told me that Jackson was borderline and that he would have recommended a circ for him anyway.

The prodecure was so simple. He put numbing cream on it and we waited about an hour. We laid him on the table, I held him down, the mohel did the prodecure in literally 20 seconds. He was crying but I know it was just because he was being held down. He bandaged him up, we waited about 10 minutes, he checked it to make sure it wasn't bleeding too much and we were on our way. He totally fell asleep on the way home and since then he has not acted fussier than normal at all! He cried just as much getting his shots yesterday and Dr. C said it's healing up perfectly.

I'll probably have to take this post down at some point because I'm sure Jackson won't appreciate that the world is reading about his penis.