Amanda Huhta's life turned upside down when she gave birth to her first son at just 25 weeks and four days gestation. He weighed less than a kilo and spent 110 days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Huhta says that while her son was the NICU she wasn't able to find anything to dress him in. "My husband is a fighter pilot and I had ordered a shirt online that said 'Daddy's Co-Pilot' and had a picture of a fighter jet," Huhta, who lives in Tucson, Arizona, told TODAY Parents.
"I remember having that going-home outfit and thinking, there is no way he will fit in this. Then I cried and I called my mum, and that's when she made something for us," she recalls.
But Huhta soon realised that other parents felt the same way about not being able to dress their baby.
"We would visit our NICU often after we had been discharged to see our nurses and doctors and show off our miracle man. We'd also talk to the parents, and it became apparent that I needed to do something about these micro-preemie shirts that everyone wanted ... and needed," she explains.
Now a mum of two, Huhta makes tiny outfits for premmie babies and hands them out to parents in the NICU. She calls the initiative 25 and Four in honour of her son, and hopes to make it into an official not-for-profit charity.
She already has one volunteer in each state and uses material that has been donated.
The tiny outfits aren't just small – they're also simple. "When babies are in the NICU, they're most likely, but not always, going to have some kind of lines attached to them, oxygen or heart rate monitors, and putting on a regular onesie is difficult because you have to detach the lines and put them through the onesie and then put the onesie on the baby, and things can get caught," Huhta explains.
As a result, the outfits that 25 and Four make are one piece and very easy to put on and take off. "You can lay it flat on the baby's bed and it folds over and attaches with Velcro," she said. "It's like a little vest."
These days Huhta's son, who is now three, is doing well. He often accompanies her to the hospital when she is giving out the tiny clothes. "He thinks it's so great," she said. "He says, 'Are you sewing for the sick babies?' He knows that when we go to the hospital, we're there to help."
Huhta estimates that at least 200 outfits have been passed on to the NICU since she started 25 and Four. She hopes that the simple garment is making a difference to parents.
"Babies don't care if they're wearing clothes. You want to go to the hospital and put the clothes on that you picked out for your baby and take him home, crying and happy," she sys.
"But you go to the NICU and your world is turned upside down. Having that shirt gives them a little bit of joy, a little bit of hope."