Third-Smallest Baby ‘Looks Like a Fighter'

Melinda Star Guido was born 16 weeks early, weighing a little more than half a pound

The parents of a child considered to be the third-smallest baby ever born are looking forward to bringing their newborn home in about three weeks.

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"I'm looking forward to going out for picnics, spoiling her like any other dad," said father Yovani Guido, of Granada Hills. "She's getting big. She's going to get bigger and bigger. I feel more confident she's going to make it."

Melinda Star Guido was born 16 weeks early on Aug. 30. She weighed just 9 1/2 ounces.

Global Birth Registry figures show that Melinda is the third-smallest baby ever born, weighing less than a can of soda and roughly the same as two iPhones, according to officials at LA County-USC Healthcare Network. She is believed to be the second-smallest baby ever born in the United States.

She now weighs a little more than 4 pounds.

"She just looks like a fighter -- really feisty, always moving around, laughing," said mother Haydee Ibarra. "She has really chunky cheeks. She looks like her dad."

Melinda's is drinking from a small baby bottle. She can be picked up and hugged with care, her father added.

"When you lift her up, you just don't want to do it in the wrong way," he said.

Melinda was in a incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit. Thursday marked her original due date.

It's too early to determine how she will fare developmentally and physically, but Dr. Rangasamy Ramanathan said he is "cautiously optimistic."

A problem with the placenta -- the organ that provides nourishment -- developed during Ibarra's pregnancy. Ibarra, who previously had a stillborn, suffered from high blood pressure during the pregnancy, and the fetus was not getting proper nutrition, blood and oxygen.

Doctors warned that babies born that prematurely can develop problems such as blindness, deafness or cerebral palsy. The parents encouraged doctors to do what they could. 

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"I told them she was a fighter," said Ibarra. "If they can, please help her to survive."

Melinda was delivered by cesarean section at 24 weeks. A team of doctors monitored her in the NICU, where a machine was used to assist her breathing. She received nutrition through a feeding tube.

Melinda can now breathe on her own, but still uses an oxygen tube as a precaution.

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