'She's a little miracle': LA baby born at 24 weeks weighing just 9oz becomes world's third smallest to survive

But after round the clock care at the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Melinda is now tipping the scales at 4.12lb and her parents hope to have her home by New Year's Day.

A little fighter: Melinda Star Guido holds her mother's little finger while lying in an incubator at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center yesterday

Her mother, Haydee Ibarra, 22, told LA Now: 'She was always fighting, all the nurses were saying that she was really feisty, she was always fighting for her life.'

Miss Ibarra had to deliver Melinda by Caesarian section at just 24 weeks because of a high blood pressure disorder that both their lives at risk.

She weighed just 270g (9.5oz) at birth making her, according to figures from the Global Birth Registry, the third smallest baby ever to be born and survive until her due date.

So small she could fit into the palm of her doctor's hand, Melinda has spent the first few, crucial months cocooned in an incubator in the LA County's NICU.

Melinda, with her mother's fingers in the shot, in the neonatal intensive care unit just after she was born

She received round-the-clock care from doctors and specialists in the neonatal unit, who say she is the smallest there in 30 years

Almost every day, her mother would spend all day sat by her bedside, and stayed overnight whenever she was able to.

During her pregnancy, Miss Ibarra suffered from high blood pressure, which can be dangerous for both mother and foetus.