Introducing Jonathan Paul Giosa

Our little miracle boy, Jonathan Paul, arrived on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 1:53pm. He made his arrival very quickly which made Mommy happy. He weighed in at 6lbs, 11 oz and was 20 inches long. He's our little peanut. We can't believe how tiny he is! His big brother, Aiden, was so excited to meet him and has been doing great with him so far.

Jonathan has gotten a clean bill of health and all looks well. He didn't need to spend any time in the NICU and we were able to keep him in the room with us. For those who didn't know, he does have a limb deformity called Fibular Hemimilia. Jonathan's right leg is shorter and missing a bone and he only has 3 toes on his right foot. He also has clubbed left foot. We weren't sure how his birth and delivery would play out, but in the end it was perfect. His leg doesn't look as bad as we thought and we start our ortho visits on Weds. We're excited to be going with some of the best ortho doctors to handle this, but saddened by the long road ahead our sweet baby boy will have to endure.

As for his delivery, it was such a different story than Aiden (thankfully). I went in Thursday morning to get induced (about 4 days before my due date to try to avoid a complicated deliver this time) and again it went quickly. The contractions didn't seem as bad this time around. I pushed for 20 mins (although I don't remember feeling as exhausted last time as I did this time), and had no tearing at all. I was so thankful as I did get a bit nervous history could repeat itself. Once he was born, they did take him to the baby isolate to evaluate him right away. So, I didn't get to hold him for about 15 mins or so after he was born, but luckily they allowed Keith to be there. He did beautiful with 8 and 9 scores on his Apgar test and passing all the rest! After that he was all ours to enjoy.

We feel so blessed to have two beautiful and health boys and wonderful friends and family for all their love, support, and well wishes.

Closing the gap... 37 weeks down, 3 to go

Well I'm heading down the home stretch....at 37 weeks and 2 days as of today. I started my weekly visits last week and things are still progressing well. I'm still gaining weight, which at this point, I wish I would stop, even though I am doing so much better then I was when pregnant with Aiden. And I have no signs of labor as of yet- so not dilating and not effaced and JP has not dropped. No surprise to me. The doctors say since it's my second that can change quickly, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I had an ultrasound around 34 weeks and JP is a little peanut. He's measuring small and was estimated to be in 25-30% for weight for his fetal age at 4lbs 12 oz then. No reason for concerns, but it might change my induction date as they would like to him to gain a little more weight for the time being. So I'll probably go sometime towards the end of the week of the 20th or on my due date the 27th. It's a week by week thing now.

Also, there was some amazing and break thru news in limb lengthening care. These fabulous doctors (Dr. Standard and Dr. Herzenberg) from Sinai Hospital created and got FDA approval on an internal fixator, which could be great news for Jonathan's future.

Right now when limb lengthening surgeries occur, patients are in a external fixator (pic below) for long stretches of time and there are pins that go into the leg's bone, which need to be turned. From what I hear, it can be painful and there are possibility of infection. This new internal fixator would make life "easier" for all these children/adults with Fibular Hemimelia.

Here's the article of it Sinai Hospital Surgeons Codevelop First Remote-Control Leg Lengthening Implant Cleared by the FDA |.