Nikko's Arrival

Dominic Ryan O'Donnell
Born June 28th, 2014
9:34pm
8lbs 0oz
20" long

A week and four days early...

Perfectly healthy baby =]

I can't tell you how perfect this little boy is and how he has just completely melted our hearts. To finally hold him in our arms and give him every bit of our love is a complete blessing and the best feeling in the world. All doubt goes out the window and life before him doesn't exist. He is everything we could have ever imagined and more.

I had such a great birth team and I am forever grateful for their support. Eric and April were my cheerleaders while pushing (not to brag or anything, but I popped him out in 37 minutes WITH an epidural) and our families were gathered and waiting before and after his arrival. The delivery went great and my doctor and nurses were absolutely amazing. I cannot picture a better birth experience than this one, which is great considering what giving birth involves! Today was our first appointment at CHOP since Nikko has been out of the womb. We met with our plastic surgeon Dr. Caplan and he knew exactly what has to be done as soon as he looked at his hand and foot. This is what he plans on doing:

His toes are all bunched in the one spot on top of his foot where the random bubble is protruding, which will cause his toes to grow upward. He plans on removing that bubble and separating the bunched up toes under the skin, and creating a straight, flat, smooth line. There will still not be any toes, just a flat top which will allow the foot to grow outward and straight instead of upward and deformed. He will have perfect balance and walk as if he had all ten toes, but the right foot will be slightly shorter than the right, which means we will purchase our shoes from Nordstrom since they sell mismates (and mommy loves shopping at Nordstrom!).


His middle finger will have a Z-Plasty to flatten out the protruding bubble. His ring finger has the finger tip curled underneath the center of the finger, but it has no function to it and function cannot be restored to it, therefore he will remove it completely. His pinky finger will be left alone, and he will separate each of the fingers individually since they are slightly webbed towards the base of the fingers. This will give his hand much more function. The good news is his thumb and pointer finger give him all of the function he really needs, but by doing the surgery, we eliminate the non functional parts and give his fingers more movement.


Our pre surgery appointment is scheduled for November where we will get his hand and foot X-Rays and meet with anesthesia and go over exactly what will happen on surgery day. His surgery is scheduled for January. It was much easier to talk about having surgery on him prior to him being born, but now that he is here, this mommy is nervous. I know it's not as sever a surgery as others, but it's my baby. I don't like seeing him get a shot, let alone under the knife in a surgery. Dr. Caplan is very reassuring and confident and Eric is very calm about it as well. I know something is scary if he starts panicking!


We go back to the pediatrician on Monday so I'll update you on the little mans growth! Thanks for looking!