Overjoyed Kim Cruickshanks has finally become a mum after six miscarriages in 14 years to tiny Daisy who arrived FOUR months premature.
Kim, 32, was warned the mite would not survive beyond a few breaths when she went into labour at just 23 weeks.
And after the agony of losing six unborn children she could not bear to look at her first-born child when she arrived weighing just 1lb 1oz – the same as a small bottle of COKE.
But to her delight husband Anthony Slaughter, 32, turned her round and told her: “Look, she’s moving.”
Kim and Anthony then faced further trauma as little Daisy battled for survival at Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent.
The couple were not allowed to hold her for the first 18 days – and the tot then spent another three months in intensive care.
But she was finally allowed home on August 1after reaching 4lb 8oz.
Today marks the date Daisy would have been due if she had carried to full term, but instead she is already four months old.
Kim said: “It feels like it’s a miracle – I can’t believe I waited so long have a baby. I didn’t think it was going to happen.
“I still keep checking on her. I’m forever looking over at her.
“She’s lifting her head and doing things you would expect of a four-month-old baby and she smiles a bit.
“We were told it was highly unlikely she would make it.
“They said when she was born she might breathe a little bit but that might be it.
“I thought we were going to lose her – we had a bit of hope but were prepared for the worst.”
Kim, from Sheerness, Kent, was always at risk of miscarrying because of her polycystic ovaries and her six previous pregnancies all ended before 12 weeks.
Her hopes were raised when she passed the three-month landmark with Daisy and rushed out to buy baby clothes.
But her joy turned to terror when she went into labour at 23 weeks, 16 weeks before her due date – and still a week before the official abortion limit.
She admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital on 17 April and went into labour on the morning of 20 April.
She gave birth in the breech position to tiny Daisy – who weighed the same as a standard 500ml bottle of coke – later that day.
Daisy was rushed away and Kim and Anthony were warned her chances of survival were slim.
Doctors managed to get her breathing through a tube but the premature mite had numerous problems including hypotension, respiratory distress syndrome, acute renal failure, jaundice, feeding problems, hyperglycaemia and metabolic bone disease.
She spent 60 days in an incubator in the intensive care unit, five in a high dependency ward and a further 38 in intensive care.
Kim was discharged four days after giving birth and went back to visit Daisy every day before she was finally allowed to take her home on 1 August.
Daisy will need to be monitored closely until she is two-years-old, but Kim and Anthony have been told she is expected to have caught up with other children by the age of five.
Kim has since discovered that her great-great-grandmother, Dolly Boakes, weighed exactly the same as Daisy when she was born in 1910.
She had to be wrapped in cotton wool for the first six months of her life – but lived into her 80s.
