Having a little boy left us with a really tough decision to make. I think for a long time people in our society just circumcised their children cause that was just what you do, but now days the American Academy of Pediatrics says that it is not medically necessary. So Jason and I had a decision to make. We did a lot of research to try and make an educated decision that we (and Kruz) would be happy with.
As we were weighing the pros and cons(and there are many) There was nothing that gave us a really good reason to do it or to not do it. We were completely split down the middle! In the end it came down to social reasons, we wouldn't want our son teased in high school or "looking different than daddy", and hygiene for him later in life, it would be nicer, not having to deal with smegma(seriously? the worse name for that stuff!)
It came down to the last minute we were getting discharged from the hospital and we were still undecided what we were going to do. And if we were going to do it I wanted to do it before we left the hospital. We decided to do it, so the nurse from the nursery came to get him and as he was wheeled out of the room Jason turns back and looks at me with a sad face as he walked out of the room and I immediately started crying and feeling like I still didn't want to do it and was not completely sold on the idea of doing it.
When Kruz came back I could tell he was in pain and even though he would sleep fine, when we changed his diaper it hurt him. :( Jason said watching the procedure was awful and he wanted to cry the entire time. He said when they ripped back the foreskin and when they put the needle in his penis to numb him is when Kruz cried the most and then he didn't cry when they actually cut off the skin.
What's done is done, and if we were to do it again, we probably would still do it, I think we needed to experience that to know that we really DO NOT want to do that ever again! We still feel bad and are a little mad that it is socially acceptable to have that done. Especially after seeing both sides of the spectrum. We talk about if we lived in any other country like Europe where circumcision is not the norm we would not have done it. Plus it completely goes against what I stand for which is I think god designed your body to make it work the way it is intended to and that surgically altering your body for no real reason but social, status etc.. Is vain and of the world! (that being said, I would love a nose job,mine is getting more and more crooked as I get older! ha!) But really, if he ends up having my personality, even being teased in high school wouldn't effect him and he would have been completely fine uncircumcised. And the risks of infections and problems are just as great of risk of Kailah having breast cancer, and we aren't going to just cut off her boobs at birth just because of the chances...
Anyways that is our stance and we support every parents individual choice for what they do to their children because circumcision is not a horrible thing but for us it wasn't something I think we will do again.... I guess we will see when and if I have another boy in the future.
I took a picture of his penis to always remember what it looked like before getting cut. I hope he is happy with our decision in his future. I hate making decisions that are so big like this for my kids, I wish they could just decide for themselves.
Wikipeida has great information on circumcision and is probably the least bias.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision
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