by Ron GodfreyTINY Sarah Grace Morley has given her mum Alison the perfect Mother's Day present.

Little Sarah has been fighting for her life at the special care baby unit in York where she was born three months premature on February 15.

The little girl weighed just 1 lb 10oz, or 758 grams.

Alison, her husband John and their 7-year-old daughter Claire have been visiting the tiny infant every day.

But it is only now that she has tipped the scales at 2 lbs have they dared to register the battling tot's name.

Ice cream salesman John, of Broughton Way, Osbaldwick, said: "It's like a mother's day present for Alison.

"You should have seen Sarah when she was born. She weighed no more than a box of cornflakes. Now her weight's progressed to the equivalent of less than a bag of sugar."

Alison said: "We legally had six weeks to register her name with the Bootham registrar but we waited until the last moment."Now we're much more confident."

Alison's baby was due on May 11, but she was rushed to York District Hospital with pre-eclampsia, the condition associated with high blood pressure in pregnant women.

She was treated there for three weeks - a delicate balance between controlling her blood pressure and trying to ensure that the foetus had gestated for 28 weeks, which is regarded viable for survival.

But when Alison's blood pressure suddenly soared to 130, where normal is 80, Sarah was delivered slightly short of the 28 weeks by Caesarian section.

Alison said: "My condition had affected her and she was even smaller than everyone had expected."

But the couple are still steeling themselves because by May, when Sarah should be big enough to take home for the first time, she will have to have an operation for a recently-discovered hernia.

She will be taken to a hospital in Leeds where she will be given specialist anaesthetist's treatment and will return to York District Hospital to recover.

Alison said: "So we're keeping fingers crossed - even at the end of the tunnel."

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