Outies

As a baby Sam does not remind me of the girls much at all. That is until I change his diaper and I gaze in amazement at his absolutely, unbelievable, humongous OUTIE!

Check it out! (ha-ha)

Sam at almost 2 months

Natalie and Amelia at 4 months
(notice the bandaids from their shots)

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this type of phenomena. These are actually umbilical hernias. There is (was for the girls) an opening in the abdominal muscles. With age the opening closes and the "outie" goes "inie". In some cases it doesn't and a person could have it surgically fixed. I can't remember when the girls' closed off but I think it was by age one. Both Natalie and Amelia now have normal looking belly buttons.

What somewhat baffled me was that Sam's belly button did not pop out until he was four weeks old. I literally witnessed the actual popping while changing his diaper one day. Prior to the event he had a normal looking belly button.

To make the outie even more interesting you can gently press on it and cause it to go inside the abdominal muscle opening. When I do this it makes a swishing noise. One that is most definitely noticeable. In fact, if you cuddle Sam to you and he shifts positions so that his belly button is compressed you can hear the swishing noise.

To help illustrate just how much his button sticks out I had to take a profile view. His outie wins the household record for tallest that is for sure!

And if you are laughing at him and his outie right now, Sam has something to say to you...