TIFU and now I have a medical cup with 3-4 inches of umbilical cord in my fridge

So obligatory “this happened last week”.

Last Thursday my son was born. This is my second child, and I have been so excited to meet him! When he was born (at least where I’m located in the US) what they do is cut the cord, then ask the father to come over to cut off a section of cord left on the belly button. After a few minutes of soaking in my son, helping my wife do the same while they put her back together (she had a c-section), and whatnot, I turned to the nurse that had actually helped me cut the cord.

Me: “Hey, can I have that section of umbilical cord we cut off?”

Nurse: “Uh, that goes off for analysis. Would you… like me to cut some extra?”

Me (oblivious): “That’d be great, yes please!”

She comes back a minute later with a medical cup containing the bit of umbilical cord, hands it to me, and all is well. After another half hour or so, we’re being brought back, we’re just hanging out, and I have the cup of umbilical cord just sitting on the counter at the moment. A little later, my wife’s friend is by, and I very proudly showed her the cup of umbilical cord. She looked slightly confused and grossed out and asked me why I had this.

This is where I tell her that, of course, I wanted to keep ahold of it, just like we did with my daughter! My wife burst out laughing, and after I asked why, she explained that all we kept was the bit that fell off the belly button once it dries up.

I can only try to describe to you the combination of confusion, recognition, and embarrassment I felt. Of course that’s what we did! I REMEMBERED THIS! AND I ASKED A POOR NURSE TO JUST “CUT ME OFF A LITTLE EXTRA”. FOR NO REASON! To the nurses credit, she was incredibly professional about the situation and never made me feel weird about the request.

My wife also found it really funny and kind of sweet. When I asked why in the world she didn’t ask the reasoning behind my request, she explained that she knows how I am (I like collecting things like animal skulls) and honestly just didn’t really question it.

Now I just have a container with a section of umbilical cord in it, sitting next to my eggs, that I don’t know quite what to do with.

TL;DR: I forgot that you only keep the bit of umbilical cord that falls off the belly button after a baby is born, so instead asked a nurse to just “cut me off some extra” and now it’s sitting in my fridge.