Baby who spent 6 months in NICU after miracle birth celebrates 1st birthday in New Lenox

NEW LENOX, Ill. (WLS) -- One year ago this Sunday, Nyla Brooke Haywood was born at Silver Cross Hospital at just over 22 weeks and three days, weighing a single, precious pound and one, delicate ounce.

With song and snuggles, baby Nyla returned to a familiar place with the caring embrace of the doctors and nurses who helped saved her life.

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"Just grateful, super grateful because we knew going into this that this could've went completely different," Nyla's mother Nakeya Moffett said.

"Super fragile... Fortunately, Nyla's lungs were mature enough," NICU Medical Director Dr. Corryn Greenwood said. "A big fighter. From day one, she always let us know what she liked, she didn't like."

"With all the warnings we had and just everything that was going on, she came out active, so I just felt like she was going to fight," Nyla's father Cory Haywood said.

Day after day in the neonatal intensive care unit, Nyla grew stronger until she went home the day after Mother's Day, some six months after being born.

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"We talk about her all the time," Neonatologist Dr. Brett Galley said.

Now weighing 15 pounds, Nyla continues to see a pulmonologist, but her parents say she's in good health, not just growing, but thriving.

The baby, who once fit in the palm of a hand, now has everyone she meets wrapped around her finger.

"She's really the face of belief," Moffett said.

With balloons and cake, it's a very happy birthday. for the extended family whose wish already came true.