Bit By the Stork!

What is a "Stork Bite" you might ask? I asked myself the same question and have been asking it for a little under seven months! If case you haven't noticed, my sweet boy, has a stork bite on the middle of his forehead (occasionally I call it his angel kiss - the red patch right in the middle of his forehead) and I have been meaning to read exactly what that is for quite some time now, just never got around to it. Well, I decided today was the day and I researched it! It is basically a birthmark or a collection of enlarged blood vessels. It is quite common and appears in about 1/3 of all newborn babies. It can appear at birth or the first few months after birth, and is more common in premature babies. This I found really interesting, because I remember the day he got it. It was one of the first times they put Connor on his belly in the hospital (he was about a week old) and when they flipped him around he had a stork bite! We thought it was just the blood pooling from being on his belly - but it has stayed with us. They can become "redder" or more noticeable when the little one is angry or hot, and they fade within the first eighteen months of life. They are most common on the forehead, eyelids, and the back of the neck (those on the back of the neck rarely fade). So, we can watch over time as CFJ's little stork bite fades away by the time he is one and a half.

I found the whole thing super interesting! I also read about the "folklore" that surrounds stork bites and the one I found most interesting was the tale about how they occur when the expectant mother experiences a great deal of fear. They are also "unanswered wishes" of the expectant momma. Very interesting as one of my wishes was for my baby to arrive on his due date, and I was quite fearful for his safety those few weeks in the hospital. I know this really is not the cause, but I think it is very, very interesting! So, everyone can say they learned something new today!