Melanie Bryant knew that her daughter--her first child--would have to be born early. A routine ultrasound revealed that her placenta was not functioning due to a condition called two-vessel umbilical cord.

The normal umbilical cord contains two arteries and one vein. The umbilical vein carries oxygenated blood from the placenta to the left portal vein in the fetal liver. The most common abnormality of the umbilical cord is a single umbilical artery, which occurs in 0.5% to 2.5% of pregnancies and is sometimes referred to as a two-vessel cord.

Baby Stori could not grow.

Melanie was referred to the high-risk pregnancy clinic at Duke. Twelve weeks before her due date, she was admitted to Duke for close monitoring and daily tests until Stori was born which, as fate would have it, would be just five days later.

Melanie had become pre-eclamptic, and doctors ordered a C-section. Stori was born on June 20 ready to fight her battle to survive outside the protection of her mother's womb.

Doctors and nurses in the Duke Children's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) were with her for every step of that fight. Her bodily functions were great but with significant acid reflux, feeding was a mjaor struggle.

"The doctors and nurses did a great job keeping Stori healthy and helping our stress levels too," says Melanie. "Dr. Tanaka, our neonatologist, helped us learn what problems are normal for preemies. That was more comforting than we can say. Just to know that what seemed so significant to us is routine for these highly skilled caregivers at Duke Children's."

When Stori reached four pounds four months after her birth, she was able to go home. She has continued to gain a pound a month since.

Today Stori is doing wonderfully. She is still medicated for acid reflux, but caregivers at the Special Infant Care Clinic (SICC) are excited that Stori seems to be catching up to a normal growth rate and is on target developmentally.