When she was born, 15 weeks premature and weighing ten and a half ounces, her father's confidence was about the only thing on Kimberly Mueller's side.
In the few snatched moments he was allowed before his daughter was whisked away by doctors, Andreas Mueller spoke from his heart.
"I whispered to her: 'Kimberly, you'll make it,'" he recalled.
The size of a mobile phone: Kimberley Mueller weighed just over 10 ounces when she was born in Hanover, Germany - making her the world's smallest surviving baby
With a survival chance of less than 1,000 to one, every day she has got through since then is a triumph.
Six months later, Kimberly has finally been allowed to go home to her parents in Hanover.
"Babies as small as this usually have no chance," said Dr Oliver Moeller, a heart specialist who treated her.
"We are incredibly lucky that she lived. Such a case I have never experienced. We had a lot of luck ... a lot."
Kimberly is the smallest baby ever born in Germany and the youngest to survive.
She was just 10.2 inches long and weighed little more than a packet of butter when she arrived in the 25th week of her mother's pregnancy.
Now six months, Kimberley has been allowed home for the first time (Above with mother Petra and father Andreas)
Petra Mueller, 38, who remained at her daughter's bedside in intensive care at the University Clinic in Goettingen, was allowed only to stroke her with her finger.
"It was the nicest thing when she would grip my finger in her tiny hands," she recalled.
"She was like a little bear gripping a tree trunk, just hanging on for life as if she was saying 'Don't leave me, mummy'."
Kimberly was placed in an incubator for warmth, given a respirator to help her breathe and fed through a drip. She was also given a cocktail of drugs to boost an immune system that was barely formed.
At three months, she faced a major setback, when doctors feared she could be blind. But laser treatment corrected the problem.
Kimberley's chances of living were rated at worse than 1,000-1 when she was born 15 weeks prematurely
Kimberly's progress was underlined when she arrived home this week weighing five and a half pounds and measuring 17 inches.
During the coming weeks she will continue to be fed artificially and will need to have oxygen as her lungs keep developing.
The world's smallest known surviving baby was Rumaisa Rahman who weighed just 8.6 ounces when she was born in Chicago in 2004.
The world's tiniest baby - meet the 10oz bundle of defiance
Top of the mops - check out these hair-raising nippers
The readers' pictures which prove our ginger topped tot isn't the only hair-raising nipper!
Katie-Lee Webster's three-inch shock of ginger hair amazed readers when we published a picture of the Manchester tot last week.
At only ten weeks old she already has the flowing locks of a child several times her age.
Katie-Lee's hair is, of course, natural.
Here is a selection of photographs of other head-turning babies from around Britain, sent in by their proud parents...
Our story about Katie-Lee Webster last week
Incredible player that keeps Apple as King
Verdict: Best-looking MP3 player ever
At just 8mm thick, Apple's new flagship iPod is a stunning piece of design.
It's incredibly slick and undoubtedly the bestlooking media player on the market.
The screen quality is superb, the interface extremely easy to use.
Web browsing is fast, thanks to built-in wireless networking.
The sleek, smooth new lines of the new iPod Touch will make it a must-have Christmas present
Its 31/2-inch touch-screen display lets the user scroll through menus with light finger touches or use two fingers to resize pictures.
Scrolling through CD artwork, as if the cases were in a rack, works brilliantly. Video quality is excellent, and YouTube clips also look great.
The glass screen does seem to attract fingerprints and the Touch lacks space - we used a 16gb version which was perfect for music, but start adding films and TV shows, and it will very quickly fill up.
Despite these drawbacks, it is an incredible player, and will certainly cement Apple's position as the king of the portable music world.
• iPod Touch uses the same innovative touchscreen technology as the iPhone
• It is Apple's first iPod with wireless internet access.
• The new iPod will be linked up to Apple's iTunes store, allowing owners to preview and download millions of songs.
The new iPod Touch (left) and the revamped line of iPod Nanos announced by Apple overnight.
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