A premature baby born at 25 weeks and weighing just 300g has defied the odds to return home with her family.
Poppy Wicks now weighs a more robust 2kg (4lbs 5oz) and will soon come off her oxygen aid.
Born in March, her parents Hannah Wicks and Steve Bendtner were told to prepare for the worst and to consider her funeral arrangements.
Indeed, Hannah, 31 and also a mum to Oliver, five, was warned her baby simply would not live.
She described to Mirror.co.uk: “All along we were told, ‘She’s not going to be alive at the next scan’.”
That’s because their unborn baby suffered from foetal growth restriction and not enough blood was reaching her vessels.
At Bristol’s Southmead Hospital, Poppy arrived by emergency Caesarean at 25 weeks on March 9.
Hannah explained: “When they said they had to deliver, I burst into tears. That’s when it hit me, ‘She’s either going to make it or not’.”
Ms Wicks got to hold her daughter for the first time on Mother’s Day – when she was three weeks’ old.
It’s been a long and uncertain road for the family, but incredibly Poppy is now at home with her brother and parents.
The little one even starred in a Pampers advert for preemie nappies.
Hannah and Steve have been told their baby has a high risk of cerebral palsy, but they say that “none of that matters now”.
“It’s the fact that’s she’s here that’s important. That in itself is just perfect. She continues to amaze us and the doctors. I think she will continue to defy expectations.”
