Clean the area twice a day with a saline rinse - not alcohol, not peroxide, not the scented soap already in your shower. Both dry the skin out and slow healing rather than speeding it up.
Do not remove the jewelry during healing, even if it looks calm. An opening can close over in under an hour, and reinserting jewelry into a partially closed piercing is its own injury.
Cartilage and navel piercings run long - months, not weeks. Redness or tenderness that lingers past the first two weeks, or shows up new after things had settled, is worth a call rather than a guess.
Come back for the downsizing follow-up once swelling has gone down. Starter jewelry is deliberately longer to make room for it, and leaving it in too long is one of the most common causes of irritation we see.
