EXCLUSIVE: Premature baby born the size of a Coke can at just 22 WEEKS makes it home in time for Christmas Hello people in the world, today Random Find Truth will provide information about the correctness and important updated opinions that you must read with the title EXCLUSIVE: Premature baby born the size of a Coke can at just 22 WEEKS makes it home in time for Christmas that has been Random Find Truth analysis, search and prepare well for you to read all. Hopefully information from Random Find Truth about Articles News, the Random Find Truth write you can make us all human beings who are knowledgeable and blessed for all.

Title : EXCLUSIVE: Premature baby born the size of a Coke can at just 22 WEEKS makes it home in time for Christmas
Link : EXCLUSIVE: Premature baby born the size of a Coke can at just 22 WEEKS makes it home in time for Christmas

It will be a very quiet, family Christmas since they still have to be careful that Ellie isn't exposed to coughs, colds and other viruses since she is still gaining strength

Baby Ellie wasn't supposed to be born until November 1, 2017.

Robin had a perfect pregnancy, just as she did with Elijah. She felt well and she and Joel, a 29-year-old professional photographer couldn't wait for their second addition to be born.

It wasn't until her first routine ultrasound scan to check the baby's anatomy at 18 weeks pregnant that a midwife spotted something extremely worrying.

She saw that Robin's cervix was shortened – or incompetent. The cervix is the opening to the uterus that sits at the top of the birth canal.

As the pregnancy progresses, it shortens, gets thinner and softer so that the baby can pass through the birth canal during labor.

Sometimes – and often for reasons unknown – the cervix opens way too early in the pregnancy without pain or contractions, so in this case, the mom-to-be doesn't even know it's happening.

'My cervix was about a tenth of the length it was supposed to be,' said Robin. 'The next day when I went back for a more detailed emergency scan, it had shrunk completely.

'This meant that I could have gone into labor at any second which would have been terrible because the doctors couldn't have helped her and she wouldn't have survived.

'It was a massive shock to us because I had thought me and the baby were healthy.'

Doctors used a cervical pessary – a small ring shaped device - into Robin's cervix in the hope that it would 'plug' her up and prevent premature labor.

The little girl from Kansas City, Missouri, is one of the most premature babies to survive

Robin (pictured), 30, went into labor four months early because she had a short cervix and her waters broke while being examined

After a short, two-and-a-half-hour labor Ellie was born. It was fast because she was already in the birth canal and she was so, so tiny

But at 20 weeks, when Robin went into St Luke's Hospital in Kansas City to have her pessary checked, it failed and her waters broke.

'It was absolutely terrifying,' said Robin. 'I was put on 24-hour bed rest and intravenous antibiotics, which were known to actually prevent labor.

'We tried to remain positive but it was grim. I took solace in the knowledge of a friend whose waters broke at 18 weeks and who hung on to have her baby at 30 weeks.

'I just prayed and thought if she could do it, then I might be able to as well. Of course we were warned that it was a long shot but it was the hope that we needed – if I didn't have my faith I don't know how I would have got through it.'

Robin hung on for almost two weeks but by mid-June, the premature dilation caused when her waters broke had developed into a premature pre-partum rupture of the membranes (PPROM).

This led to an infection and with that, there was nothing the doctors could do to help. Robin and her child were at serious risk and even though it was so early in the pregnancy, she had to deliver her baby.

Her parents Robin and Joel and her brother Elijah, two, after the birth

Doctors in St Luke's considered a premature baby of 22 weeks 'viable,' but Robin and Joel were warned about the risks.

'We had talked to the NICU doctors extensively beforehand,' said Robin. 'They told us that 22 weeks is, of course, very young but that babies have survived such a short gestation.

'We knew the risks and we knew that the odds were completely stacked against our daughter. But in the end there was no choice – the infection meant that I had to deliver her or risk serious harm to us both.'

After a short, two-and-a-half-hour labor Ellie was born. It was fast because she was already in the birth canal and she was so, so tiny.

She was born weighing just 13.6oz and measuring 10.4 inches long. Robin and Joel saw her for a split second before she was whisked away to the NICU unit.

'I did not think that a human being could be so tiny,' recalled Robin. 'She weighed a little less than a can of soda and to be honest, it was scary to look at her.

'Ellie was like this tiny bird. She had not developed any body fat so we could see all her veins – her skin was like parchment paper and her arms and legs were so small and bony.

Elijah took to being a protective brother, spending the weekends reading to his sister as she recuperated

It was hard to see how she could possibly survive. Her lungs weren't properly developed so she was intubated to help her breathe.

'I cried and cried as soon as I saw her. Joel tried to be strong for me but I know that later he broke down. We didn't know if our baby would survive the night, let alone the coming days and that was a horrible place to be.'

Robin didn't see her daughter properly until the next morning. She had emergency surgery to remove the placenta and then she hemorrhaged after, so she was in no fit state to be moved.

It wasn't until 10 hours after she was born that Robin was able to get a closer look at Ellie, wrapped-up in her incubator and she was amazed at how strong she was.

Normally, such tiny babies rarely move but there was Ellie, squirming and moving her arms and legs. In fact she was so mobile that doctors had to sedate her because she kept breaking her fragile skin open.

'When I saw her moving around, I knew that we had a fighting chance,' said Robin. 'If she was literally fighting so hard to survive, then I believed that she would – she was so incredibly feisty already.'