A premature 1lbs 10oz baby so tiny he looked like a “Barbie” has defied the odds to celebrate his second birthday - after spending 144 days in hospital.<br /><br />Cole Rosenburg, 33, who turns two this week, was just 1lbs 10oz when he was born on March 19, 2021 – 16 weeks early.<br /><br />He was so small, doctors told his parents, Hayley, 33, and Nick Rosenburg, 33, that the tot was unlikely to survive.<br /><br />Cole spent nearly five months in UC San Diego medical centre, San Diego, US, battling a brain bleed and learning to breathe independently before he was able to come home August 10, 2021.<br /><br />The little lad was so small he was dwarfed by his little octopus toy which he now towers over.<br /><br />Cole was diagnosed with spastic triplastic cerebral palsy in November 2022 - which limits movement due to muscle stiffness and spasms - and mum Hayley say she "couldn’t imagine life without him".<br /><br />His parents are hopeful he will continue to make progress as he is able eat, sit up by himself with support and roll over.<br /><br />Hayley, who owns a hair salon, from San Diego, California, US, said: “It was crazy - he looked like a Barbie doll.<br /><br />“Cole was requiring a lot of oxygen and they discovered a brain bleed.<br /><br />“Now he’s extremely behind.<br /><br />“He can barely sit by himself and can’t stand or crawl.<br /><br />“But he’s doing things they said he wouldn’t do.<br /><br />“We’ve hopeful that he’ll keep progressing.<br /><br />“He’s amazing.<br /><br />“I can’t imagine my life without him.”<br /><br />Hayley and Nick, a manager at a power support dealership, were over the moon when they fell pregnant with Cole in October 2020.<br /><br />The couple had lost their son, Connor, when he was four days old on July 9, 2020, from hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.<br /><br />She said: “We were just excited, not nervous.”<br /><br />Hayley started bleeding when she was three months along, but doctors couldn’t see anything wrong and kept a close eye on her for the rest of her pregnancy.<br /><br />But on March 16, 2021, at 23 weeks and three days, Hayley woke up and knew she was in labour.<br /><br />She said: “I just woke up and knew – ‘I’m in labour.’<br /><br />“I was having contractions.”<br /><br />Hayley rushed to UC San Diego medical centre, San Diego, US, were they confirmed she was 3cm dilated and in labour.<br /><br />Doctors gave her steroid shots and medication to slow her labour and she was told she could deliver anytime from the next day to 16 weeks.<br /><br />While in hospital, Hayley tested positive for covid despite no symptoms and her husband, Nick, wasn’t able to be with her.<br /><br />Two days later, on March 19, 2021, Hayley started having contractions again.<br /><br />She said: “I went from 3cm to 9cm in 20 minutes.<br /><br />“He was reach so they had to do a c-section.<br /><br />“I could feel his feet coming out of me.”<br /><br />After her epidural failed, Hayley had to be put under aesthetic for the birth and had no idea if her little boy had survived when she came round.<br /><br />She said: “I woke up and I didn’t know what had happened.<br /><br />“I asked a nurse - ‘is my baby alive?’<br /><br />“She didn’t know at first, but she found out and told me - ‘he’s alive and your husband is with him’.
