Outie

I took Joss in to see her pediatrician and sure enough her extreme outie is an umbilical hernia.  What's an umbilical hernia you ask?  Well, it's when the abdominal muscles behind the naval are either weak or don't come fully together after birth.  So that protrusion you see is actually part of her intestine protruding through this hole/weak spot underneath her belly button.  Some umbilical hernias will close on it's own by the age of 2, but in some instances the hole may be too big to close on its own, so surgery would be required.  So that he can determine how big the hole underneath her naval is, her pediatrician pushed her protruding belly button in with his finger.  It looked like that would hurt, but Joss was totally fine.  You can even hear her intestines gurgling a little when he did it.  Weird, huh?  Anyway, it turns out the hole is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter, small enough to wait and see if it will close on its own by the time she turns 2.  If it doesn't close by then, we'll need to talk with a pediatric surgeon about fixing it.  This type of surgery is considered "cosmetic" and in most cases can be done as an out-patient.  I know I don't need to think about this now, but it's good to know the possible outcomes and it's good to know her "outie," though strange looking, isn't as bad as it looks.