Saybie weighed 245 grams at birth. About as much as a large apple.
In December 2018, at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in San Diego, doctors had to deliver early: her mom had developed preeclampsia, the baby stopped growing in the womb, and the mother’s life was in danger. She was born by emergency C-section at 23 weeks and 3 days. A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.
The family was warned that she might not make it past the first 24 hours. Her dad was told he would have about an hour with her. The NICU nurses gave her the nickname Saybie, and hung a pink sign next to her crib: “Tiny but Mighty”.
She spent almost five months in there. According to the hospital, she had almost none of the typical complications of babies born so prematurely, such as brain bleeds or lung and heart problems. In May 2019, she went out the door and headed home, healthy and weighing about 5 pounds.
She is believed to be the world’s smallest baby to survive: she weighed 7 grams less than the previous record holder, a baby born in Germany in 2015, according to the University of Iowa’s registry. Her parents asked for privacy and only allowed her nickname to be made public.