The mom and dad of a California baby girl born weighing the amount of a soda can say they are grateful to God that she is thriving just seven months after her birth. Ellyannah Lopez came into the world after just 26 weeks in the womb, weighed only 12 oz, and was the smallest baby to ever be born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Now little Ellyannah has grown to 12 pounds and continues to exceed the doctor’s expectations.
“She was born so small that no one, none of the doctors in that operating room thought that she would cry. And when she did, I could hear everybody saying, ‘Is that her?'” Cecia Juarez, her mother, told ABC News.
Juarez and Boris Lopez, consider their daughter to be a “miracle baby.”
The couple tried for eight years to have a baby and just when they were going to seek fertility care, Juarez became pregnant. No medication required, so we knew that our baby would be nothing short of a miracle, right?” she said.
Approximately 7,000 babies are born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center each year, and many are premature. But little Ellyannah was the smallest they had ever seen.
Less than probably 1% of all births are delivered before 26 weeks. Despite around-the-clock care, in her first month, the tiny little girl almost died several times.
Her condition was so fragile that her parents could not hold her for the first 54 days of life. But her parents say she is a fighter and is now thriving.
“We’re grateful to God for giving us this precious miracle baby,” Lopez, told Fox 11, adding that “she’s getting better every day.”