VANCOUVER -- She is the smallest surviving baby a Vancouver hospital has ever delivered, and after a months-long journey she's finally home.
When Harley Gulliksen was born Dec. 20, she weighed less than a bottle of soda. Her foot was about the size of a quarter. She is not out of the woods, but for the first time in her life she's out of the hospital.
Harley s mom had a special delivery because she was born months early. She came into the world at 27 and a half weeks.
At the beginning they didn t give us much hope, but we believed, said Grandmother Cindy Gulliksen.
She was the smallest baby to survive delivery at Salmon Creek Medical Center and she would eventually break another record that would nearly break her young first-time parent's hearts.
At five months, she's had the longest stay in the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
She's got a lot of spirit, a lot of fight in her. Trying to get through everything, she's a strong little girl, said her father Mitchall Gulliksen.
Complications meant she was still in the hospital past her original due date and still there after Mother s Day. So when the Gulliksen's could finally put their little girl in the car, it was no small thing for such a small thing.
I told the kids she s a miracle. She s going to be here. And she s here, Cindy Gulliksen said.
She s doing good now. She s 7 pounds, 6 ounces. She s 17 and a half inches long, she s doing a lot better, Mitchell Gulliksen said.
Harley will be on oxygen for several months to help her underdeveloped lungs. Her long-term health prognosis is unclear, but she's eating, and responding well to stimuli. Her family takes those good signs.
KGW reporter Reggie Aqui contributed to this report.
