'The boy who lived...' Mum celebrates son's first birthday after a very traumatic year

Nadine Shelley and her son Brayden are celebrating his first birthday.

The tot was born prematurely when Nadine was just 28-weeks pregnant.

The expectant mother had turned up for her routine check-up when she learned that the amniotic fluid which protects the baby was leaking.

Being a nurse, Nadine understood exactly what the doctor was telling her – her son could be born with severe mental and physical disabilities, and he’d most likely be born blind if he was born at all.

Doctors didn’t hold much hope for the baby as all too often this news would give the baby virtually no chance of living, or a painful quality of life if he did survive.

Therefore, it came as no surprise to Nadine when she was urged to terminate her pregnancy, as it threatened her own life too.

But there was something Nadine could not get out of her mind – The Boy Who Lived.

An avid Harry Potter fan, the mum-to-be remembered that Harry should have died when he was a baby, but against all odds, he lived.

So Nadine had a thought: “I wasn't having contractions. We were at 23-weeks. What if he made it just a few more weeks until a viable time frame?”

Five weeks later along came Brayden, and with his first breath came heartache:

“His first breath of air had caused one of his fragile lungs to burst. That sent him into heart failure.”

Watching her little boy in an incubator, unable to touch or hold him, hurt Nadine and her husband more than they could imagine.

But a little over two weeks and they were able to hold their baby in their HANDS for the first time; because their son was so small he could fit perfectly snug in his parents' hands.

However, after 76 days in the hospital, Brayden was discharged, finally allowed to go home.

Nadine sharing her story to, Love What Matters, also revealed the extraordinary news of Brayden’s recovery:

“Not long ago, they were able to take him off of his oxygen tank. Doctors predicted Brayden would need to remain on his oxygen pump until three years old.”

However, they also predicted that he'd never live to see his first birthday cake, but he has; because he’s the boy who lived.

And we are now sobbing into our tea.