A baby given just a 10 percent chance of survival at birth - and whose hand was the size of a wedding ring - is now thriving.<br /><br />Reggie Sturgess, now two, weighed just two pounds and one ounce when he was born via emergency C-section after 26 weeks.<br /><br />The newborn was as long as mum Kate Sturgess' arm - and his hand was smaller than her wedding ring.<br /><br />Little Reggie had to be resuscitated three times after birth and had sepsis.<br /><br />But, against the odds, he survived - and is now thriving.<br /><br />Mum-of-six Kate, 37, said: "He's the most incredible little boy.<br /><br />"It's just amazing to see him doing all the things we always hoped he'd do.<br /><br />"All the other five [children] were full-term normal deliveries.<br /><br />"Having such a tiny baby was a whole different ball game. It's beyond everything you imagine it would be.<br /><br />"He was like a bird just emerged from its egg, and his skin was see-through so all his little bones were visible."<br /><br />Kate - who was previously told she couldn't have children - found out she was pregnant with Reggie in May 2020.<br /><br />The pregnancy appeared normal, and the expectant parents had a gender reveal in October.<br /><br />But Kate, from Southampton, noticed unusual pains while she watched Mamma Mia on TV on November 27.<br /><br />Worried, she and husband Matt, 35, an engineer, left for hospital at 6:30pm. But within ten minutes she was needing to push.<br /><br />They phoned ahead and a huge team of medics met them on arrival at 6:50pm, she says.<br /><br />Kate was then put under for her operation - while doctors struggled to find her baby's heartbeat.<br /><br />She woke in recovery two hours later to learn her baby was in intensive care, and, because of Covid restrictions, Matt had to wait outside.<br /><br />Kate first met Reggie through a hole in his incubator at around midnight.<br /><br />He was on antibiotics for sepsis and nurses told her to take it hour by hour.<br /><br />She said: "I was so frightened to see him, because I loved him so much but was so scared of losing him.<br /><br />"They said his chances of survival were less than ten per cent.<br /><br />"I was in shock and petrified - nothing prepares you for how vulnerable they are.<br /><br />"In a few hours I'd gone from watching TV to having a critically ill baby on life support."<br /><br />Medics told her Reggie got sepsis in the womb, which may have caused her to go into labour early.<br /><br />He spent seven weeks in an incubator before being moved to a different cot.<br /><br />At six weeks his lungs collapsed and he suffered multiple infections over the weeks.<br /><br />Kate pumped her breast milk and Reggie was tube fed for nine weeks.<br /><br />After laser eye surgery for detaching retinas in both eyes he went home finally on his due date - March 3, 2021.<br /><br />Reggie is on oxygen all the time at the moment.<br /><br />But that hasn't stopped him growing into a happy child.<br /><br />His family take the tank to the park so he can play with his siblings: Victoria, 13, Violet, 3, Charlie, 10, William, eight, and Henry, six.<br /><br />Kate and Matt raised £45,000 in November 2021, and another £15,000 in October 2022 for the neonatal unit at Princess Anne Hospital, where Reggie was cared for.
