baby Harriette Mobbs, born weighing less than a pound, is expected to be a very special arrival at home in West Malvern on New Year's Day.

Harriette's homecoming, on what should have been her birthday, is the moment parents Nick Mobbs and Anna Parsons have been waiting for since she was born 13 weeks prematurely on October 2.

Anna had been rushed to Ronkswood Hospital suffering from pre-eclampsia and her baby was delivered by emergency Caesarean section, weighing just 14 oz.

"They told me she wasn't going to survive at first," said Nick. "She was so tiny that they didn't think they would be able to insert a ventilator tube, but they managed to do it."

With her mother still in intensive care, Harriette was transferred to the specialist Neo-natal Care Centre at the North Staffordshire Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent.

"She was the smallest baby the nursing team had ever cared for," said Nick, who made daily trips to visit her and kept a record of her progress for the first 30 days on digital video camera.

The tiny baby was in an incubator until two weeks ago, when she was transferred to Hereford's Special Care Baby Unit.

"Initially, we couldn't handle her at all and for the first four or five weeks we had to scrub up to put a hand in and stroke her head," said Nick.

At first she was given a 1ml feed by tube every hour, but now she is fed on demand and can manage 60ml from a bottle.

Harriette's weight had reached 3lb 7oz by Christmas Eve and her proud parents were told they could take her home when she reached 3lb 12oz. Also waiting to welcome her are Nick's two sons, Thomas, aged nine, and James, six.