It's a new birthday of sorts for the Hunter family as 5-month-old Sienna Rose finally gets to go home
She's 7 pounds now and raising her head with ease - like as soon as our camera showed up. She's about the size she would have been had she not arrived 15 weeks ahead of schedule.
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In Advocate Lutheran's neonatal ICU, where up to 60 preemies are cared for constantly, Sienna was by any measure exceptionally tiny -- just 394 grams or 13.7 ounces when mother Christine gave birth -- then found herself in the adult ICU.
High-end medical services plus quiet and darkness, the doctors say, helped a lot -- but for the most part it was Sienna's spirit that got her to this point.
Even for the professional medical staff, Sienna was extremely tiny when she arrived on September 1 -- stats show that a baby born at under 400 grams stands a 50-percent chance of survival or less.
The couple have an 8-year-old who cannot wait to actually touch her baby sister. In the meantime, the parents take in last-minute instructions from staff they consider family on how to care for Sienna, whose nasal feeding tube mom and dad will have to use when she needs it periodically.