‘We couldn’t even cuddle her for 17 days’: Tiny premature baby was born so small her mum’s engagement ring fit round her arm

A MUM had to wait an agonising 17 DAYS before she could cuddle her baby after she was born three months premature.

Tiffany Thomas went into early labour after having back pain and losing blood.

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Just hours later little Alice Heather entered the world, weighing a tiny 1lb 14.5oz.

Alice was so little Tiffany was able to put her engagement ring around the top of her daughter's arm, and the new mum and her partner Matthew Heather faced a terrifying wait to hold their new baby.

"When she was born I didn't get to hold her," Tiffany, who gave birth at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, explained.

"They stabilised her on the resuscitation table and I sat up on the bed and I could just see them doing CPR on her.

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"After they stabilised her we got to see her but then she was taken to the Royal Gwent hospital in an ambulance."

It was a nurse who advised Tiffany to put her ring on Alice's arm to see how small she was, and the new mum was stunned when it went all the way up to her daughter's shoulder.

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The couple have no photos on Alice's first day alive because she was so ill.

She needed 24-hour care because she'd been born so early.

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She was given a drip and antibiotics, but when she was three weeks old her parents were given the devastating news that she'd developed blood poisoning.

Tiffany, 27, explained: "We couldn't touch her for 17 days.

"We could get some contact through the holes in the incubator but we couldn't hug her or hold her properly.

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"Little by little we could take her out to hold her for up to 10 minutes a day but sometimes she couldn't stay out for that long because the temperature would be too cold for her."

Tiffany and Matthew took it in turns to hold their little girl each day.

At six weeks old, Alice was transferred back to Prince Charles Hospital. She made great progress and when she was 12 weeks old she was allowed home.