(Image source: Opposing Views)

BY ERICA COGHILL

Her due date was Thursday, but baby Melinda has already been here for nearly four months.
San Francisco’s KTVU has the details...

“One of the world’s smallest babies is getting ready to head home.  Baby Melinda weighed 9 ounces at birth and could literally fit in the palm of her doctor’s hands.  She was born premature at twenty four weeks over the summer in Los Angeles.”

The baby’s mother, 22-year-old Haydee Ibarra, had to deliver the baby early by c-section because of a high blood pressure disorder that put both of their lives at risk.
According to the Daily Mail...

“She weighed just 270g (9.5oz) at birth making her, according to figures from the Global Birth Registry, the third smallest baby ever to be born and survive until her due date.”

CBS’s the Early Show puts Melinda’s size into perspective.

“She weighed roughly the same as two iPads or iPods stacked in your hand together.”

So how did little Melinda make it? The Telegraph reports...

“Melinda was kept insulated in an incubator and was hooked up to a machine to aid her breathing. She got nutrition through a feeding tube. Her mother said her skin felt like plastic because it was so thin.”

Doctors treated Melinda for an eye disorder that’s common for premature babies.
And she had surgery about a month ago where doctors closed an artery that usually closes on its own after birth.

She’s set to go home sometime around New Year’s Day, and a reporter on Good Morning America says it’s certainly not what doctors predicted.

“Doctor’s gave her no more than a 2 percent chance of surviving, but now, take a look at little Melinda Star Guido, beating significant odds, growing, thriving.”

Melinda now weighs a little more than four pounds. She’s not only the world’s third smallest baby, but she’s also the second smallest in the U.S.