Susan Anne Catherine Torres, born prematurely on Aug. 2 after her mother was on life support for three months, died of heart failure at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, a family statement said....The baby's prematurity led to an intestinal disorder and an infection that overwhelmed her body, and she died just after midnight, the hospital said.

Although they don't say, I suspect the "intestinal disorder was necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a common problem with these tiny preemies.

I'm not a nurse, but my oldest daughter, Anya, (bottom middle of our title ->) was born at 24 weeks weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces. She spent 105 days in the NICU, so I got to know my way around the preemie biz pretty well.

In case you're worried, Anya is turning out fine. She'll be 10 next month. I'd like to think her occasionally twisted behavior is due to her prematurity, but since the other kids were all full-term and seem to be similarly afflicted, I'm guessing it's more of a parenting issue than anything....



Here's a photo of Anya with one of her dresses she wore when she was in the NICU. My mother had to make this for her, because at the time it was difficult to find people who sold micropreemie clothing and many parents were reduced to dressing their babies in doll clothes.

To give some perspective, this dress SWAM around her when she was about 2-3 months old. It was meant to fit like a hospital gown, so that the hospital staff had access for her monitoring, and the sleeve openings were made deliberately huge so that her IV's could fit through them. "Preemie" outfits sold in regular stores started to fit her when she was around 6 months old.

I had really hoped we would be celebrating Susan Anne Catherine Torres' life in a similar manner in the years to come. Please keep her family in your prayers.