When Adaira Tanner was born weighing just 1lb 10oz, she was so fragile her mum thought she looked like a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.
Born 16 weeks early, doctors gave her just a 30% chance of survival.
And they warned that even if she did make it, there was a high risk she could be blind and suffer from epilepsy, cerebral palsy and other life-long complications.
Her outlook was so bleak her mum, Amber Crowley, was twice asked – once during labour and again when Adaira was a week old – if she wanted medics to “fight for her”.
“They said, ‘if you make the option, she will die in your arms’. I couldn’t look at the doctor, I was just pouring my eyes out,” the 25-year-old said.
But Adaira, who was given the middle name Hope, has proved them all wrong and will celebrate her second birthday on Thursday.
To mark the occasion, the healthy little girl will pay a visit to the neonatal unit where staff battled for more than four months to save her.
“Without them, she would be dead,” said Miss Crowley, of Aberdeen.
“She was so tiny, she could have fitted in my hand. I remember the first time I saw her, her skin was bright red and translucent, she almost looked sunburnt. It took a while for me to touch her because I thought I’d break her.
“She was just like a little baby bird that had fallen out her nest. Her eyes were still sealed and she was covered in white hair.”
Adaira was so fragile her mum had to wait six weeks before she got to hold her, and her dad, Martin Tanner, had to wait two more to get his first cuddle.
Miss Crowley said: “It was a terrifying time, and her dad was in America for work when I went into labour.
“I was panicking because I didn’t know if he’d get to see her. I didn’t know if she would be alive. It was horrible.”
Miss Crowley had enjoyed a normal pregnancy until she was 24 weeks pregnant, when she started to bleed and experience abdominal pains.
After being rushed to Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, Adaira was born 11 hours later and was whisked away and put on a ventilator, where she remained for nine weeks.
During that “roller-coaster”, her lungs collapsed twice, she suffered two bleeds to her brain, battled infections and a heart condition.
Miss Crowley said she and Mr Tanner forced themselves to remain “optimistic” throughout the ordeal.
And it paid off, as Adaira – who is big sister to eight-month-old Willow, is now like any other mischievous toddler.
Her proud mum said: “She’s a little miracle – and to have no long-term health problems at all is amazing. To look at her, you would never know all that she went through.
“I can’t thank the doctors and nurses enough for what they did for her, and the Friends of the Special Nursery charity. We are very lucky.”
