Diego is born!

We are proud to announce the birth of Diego Tonelli-Nova. He was born via c-section at 12:11pm on March 5th at Seton Hospital in Austin, Texas. Despite having been diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect while in utero, Diego showed no signs of distress and was a wonderful shade of pink which indicated he had good blood circulation. Additional tests showed his blood oxygen level to be at 100%. Although we were happy to see indications that his little heart was beating normally, we waited for the results of his planned echocardiogram before feeling he was out of the woods. The exam was performed by a cardiologist within 30 minutes of his birth. Thankfully the results showed his condition was not life threatening and could be surgically corrected once he turned six months old. Unfortunately this is where the good news ended. Looking at Diego we could see something was clearly wrong with his arms and legs. That something was later diagnosed as Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita. It is a condition that affects the joints and muscles of the arms and legs. It can also affect the tongue preventing babies from eating on their own as is the case with Diego. When it was clear that he was having difficulties eating, he was moved to Intensive Care and a feeding tube was inserted thru his nose and into his stomach. By this time was only 22 hrs old. As of this writing Diego is still in NICU. Romina is doing well and will require extra care which will keep her in the hospital until Friday. We apologize to everyone for not messaging out the details of Diego's birth sooner. The events over the last 24 hrs have been emotionally overwhelming and we know this is only the beginning. Please check back for updates on Diego's condition.