Weighing 12.5 ounces and measuring 10 inches long at birth, Taylor Rideout is the tiniest baby ever to survive at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

The baby was born on March 12 to Brittany Rideout and Adam Bouchat of the South Side. The due date was June 17.

Normally a baby born at 26 weeks of gestation weighs about 25 ounces, said Dr. Jennifer Kloesz of Magee's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Mrs. Rideout has lupus and the pregnancy was posing a risk to her life, so doctors had to deliver the baby. Lupus patients often have pregnancy complications, and the couple was aware of the risks.

Mr. Bouchat said they didn't plan to have a baby. "But she got pregnant ... and now she's here, moving and kicking."

"I've never seen anything tinier than her in my life. But she was four times smaller than this when she was born," the father said, while bottle-feeding his baby. His fingers were bigger than the baby's arms.

Yesterday, 77 days after her birth, Taylor weighed 2 pounds, 14.5 ounces and was 14.5 inches long.

Now she drinks 25 cubic centimeters (a little less than an ounce) of high-calorie milk every three hours. When she was a newborn, she drank only 1 cubic centimeter.

Taylor is learning to grab things within her reach. "At first, there was not much pressure but now you can feel her grip," Mr. Bouchat said.

Taylor is to go home after one or two weeks in a transitional unit at the hospital.

The baby will be smaller than usual in the first couple of years, but she can catch up after that, said Dr. Kloesz. Like any other premature infant, she faces risks of mental and physical disabilities like asthma, cerebral palsy, vision and hearing disorders.

tiny miracle