Six Months Post-Op

Wow!  It has been quite some time since I have posted anything omphalocele related, and although we are trying to just be relatively normal these days, Hayes's omphalocele is still...and will always be...a huge part of our lives.  After all, it has completely transformed who we are as a family and has altered our entire perspective on life.  That being said, today marks exactly six months since we said buh-bye to the big O.  Can you believe it?  Six whole months...that's half of a year!

Since that day, Hayes has recovered and recuperated better than we could have ever dreamed.  He has caught up (or even surpassed!) all of his little buddies when it comes to meeting those critical milestones.  He is walking all over the place, saying all kinds of new words, and even getting into a little bit of trouble.  This may be too much information for some of you folks, but even his insides are working better than ever, and he no longer suffers from the motility issues that he once did.  Hooray for poop!  The only lingering issue that we still face is his incredibly slow weight gain.  He is significantly smaller than all of his friends, and he is not even close to being on the growth chart yet.  This is probably the most common factor among little ones who are born with an omphalocele, so I know that we are not alone...but it is still awfully frustrating.  After all, this kid gets heavy whipping cream added to his whole milk as well as butter and oil put on EVERYTHING.  I feel like I gain a pound each time I just prepare a meal for him!!  Oh well.  The doctors assure me that he is growing and thriving just fine, and that he will slowly catch up as he continues to get older.  I just hope that time is sooner than later!

Of course, I have to leave you with just a few pictures of his AMAZING transformation!  It is so hard to believe that just six months ago his abdomen looked like this...

And now his sweet little tummy looks like this...

Pretty remarkable, huh?  The only problem with this picture is that Hayes was NOT very thrilled about his mini photoshoot this morning.

Here he is pouting...

 ...and then stealing my attention getter and playing with it himself!