Dominic Vigarino

For 8 years my wife and I had tried tirelessly to conceive a child. There was nothing more in life that we wanted than to have a little one to call our own. After years of trying, countless surgeries and doctors appointments, and two rounds of IVF. We finally got the call that we were going to have a baby. A tremendous relief as well as absolute joy and elation filled our lives. However all that changed 17 weeks into our pregnancy. My wife awoke early one morning to a rush of fluid...."What is happening?!" I thought to myself. So we franticly called my doctor and asked what to do. We went to the ER and went through a barrage of tests and a sonogram, and for the moment everything seemed like it was alright, just a false alarm. In a follow up with our OB/GYN we discovered that my wife had PPROMed. Simply put, her water had broke entirely too early and our baby that we had sacrificed so much for was at risk. We immediately went to the hospital and meet with a high risk doctor and got the worst news of our lives. That our baby was not going to make it. We were told that our baby's head was already crushed and that his hands and feet looked like they were clubbed. We were offered to terminate the pregnancy or simply go home and prepare for the worst to happen in a few days.

But we were not going to accept that outcome. We are not going to give up on our baby! We are going to fight for him and do everything we can to bring him into this world! Within a few days we went to the Cleveland Clinic to get a second opinion. There we were not only given that second opinion...We were given hope! There was a chance, however unlikely, that we could make it. We had to get to 23 weeks gestation and we could have a possibility of saving our baby. So we went home and for 5 weeks. My wife was on strict bed rest with the goal of trying to replenish her amniotic fluid. So she drank, and drank, and drank..I had never seen anyone drink so much water in all my life. We scoured every message board and blog on the internet to find anything that could help us reach that 23 week mark. I ordered different supplements and tried just about home remedy and old wives tale I could find. Most importantly we prayed. We prayed everyday and had so many others praying for us. And we made it to 23 weeks.

Christmas Eve 2015 we checked into our hospital accommodations and settled in not knowing what would happen next. Still on strict bed rest and constant monitoring. Tara was cared for by some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Despite all of the pokes with needles and the bad hospital food. She would not trade this time for anything. Each day she spent there, we were one day closer to meeting our baby. And we got to make some life long friends in the process.

The rollercoaster of our journey continued for 2 months. There were highs and lows. Good days and bad. With some days causing concerns for my wife's health and that of the baby's. We celebrated Christmas, New Years and Valentines Day from our hospital room. We even had the baby shower in the hospital, and got to see all of our loved ones throughout our stay multiple times. We were always able to keep our spirit up and have faith that everything was going to turn out for the best.

Then it happened, in the early morning of February 23rd. For the third time during her stay, my wife's health and that of our baby were cause for concern. It was 31 weeks and 4 days into her pregnancy and that doctors asked..:"What are we waiting for?" "We cannot wait until something severe happens and jeopardize  your life and your baby's" So they decided that we were going to deliver today. Since he was breech, a C-Section was called for. And at 12:04PM our mircle arrived. Dominic Michael Vigarino was born at 4lbs 1oz and 16 inches long. Our perfect baby let our his first cry and we were relieved. We knew then our baby was going to make it and our prayers were answered.

We spent the next 36 days in the NICU with our son. Hardly leaving his side and staring at him in constant awe. He needed very little specialized care compared to many of the other babies in the NICU and thankfully he was blessed with an overall good health. He had many things to learn during his stay. But seemingly accomplished them all with great success. We finally took our baby home on March 30th 2016 after a 3 month stay at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital.

I can not express enough, our deepest gratitude for everyone we have met along the way. Many special people have given us strength and hope and have helped us focus on our faith to carry us through our long journey. We will be eternally grateful to all the folks at the Cleveland Clinic and March of Dimes that helped us bring our miracle into the world. We hope our story will help strengthen and spread the message of the March of Dimes. And we pray that our story can provide others with the strength to carry on in their own journey.

     My wife and I are truly blessed to be have two beautiful children. Our son Nico is now 9 years old and loves school , sports and video games and our sassy girl Mia Bella is turning 7 years old and loves singing, dancing and  cheerleading