TOYAH Abbott lay sobbing on the hospital trolley, waiting to be put to sleep, wondering if she would wake to find her baby girl dead.

She had been rushed into theatre after medics discovered that her unborn daughter had not grown for the past four weeks.

And, for the past day, little Grace had not moved at all.

But her heart was still beating and staff at Royal Derby Hospital successfully delivered her weighing just 2lb 8oz.

It was the start of an ordeal which saw the tiny baby start her life receiving round-the-clock care in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Now, 15 months on, she is a healthy and happy little girl, and mum Toyah can look back on the nightmare with relief that it is all over.

The 29-year-old, of Brockhall Rise, Heanor, said: "Before Grace was born I was sobbing, wondering whether or not I was going to have a baby when I came round.

"They couldn't get me to the labour ward fast enough. I remember being offered a wheelchair and thinking that I didn't need it but I think they wanted to get me upstairs as quickly as possible.

"They hooked me up to these machines and put pads all over my belly to monitor Grace's heartbeat.

"Then a doctor came in, saw her heartbeat and straightaway he took the brakes off and wheeled me into theatre.

"They got me ready to be put to sleep so fast. I can remember throwing my jewellery at my mum while one nurse took the nail varnish off my toes and another took it off my fingers."

Toyah first realised something was wrong when she was 32 weeks pregnant.

She said: "I hadn't felt Grace move for a day, which I thought was unusual. I was really worried.

"People told me it was all right but I didn't think it was."

So she went to Royal Derby Hospital, where a scan was carried out and medics realised Grace had not been growing.

She was delivered at 3.30pm on May 12, 2009, minutes after Toyah was taken into theatre.

And despite her size and weight, she managed to breathe by herself straightaway.

When Toyah came round, her partner, Tom Nelson, told her they had a little girl.

But Grace was nowhere near ready to go home, with staff determined to help her grow to be at least 4lb before they let her go.

They also wanted to find out why she had stopped growing in the womb – a search which was to prove fruitless.

Toyah said: "They tested everything but they never came back to me with a reason. They thought she might have had an infection but the tests were negative.

"They didn't seem to find it that unusual but I thought it was strange. There must have been a reason but they just don't know what it was."

Grace spent the first 10 days of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit, which is for premature babies and those which are born full-term but are seriously ill.

She was relatively healthy but needed specialist care because she was so tiny. Nurses fed her milk through a tube in her nose.

Toyah said: "The day after she was born the nurses were adamant that I should hold her.

"I was so scared because of all the wires she was connected to and she was so tiny, I thought I was going to hurt her."

But staff wanted Tom and Toyah to get as involved as possible, encouraging them to take responsibility for tasks like cleaning Grace's mouth and eyes with a cotton bud and changing her nappy.

Tom, 25, said just spending time in the intensive care unit was enough to make him feel panicky.

He said: "It was worrying seeing the other babies in there and what some of the other parents had to go through. Some of the babies died."

A week after Grace was born, Toyah was well enough to go home. But she said she would rather have stayed in hospital, adding: "I used to cry all the way home because I'd left my baby."

So she would spend every day there, from 7am to 11.30pm, only going home to sleep. And even then, she would often wake up in the night and ring the unit.

She said: "The staff were brilliant, really helpful and supportive."

Then, when she had grown a little bigger, Grace was moved to the high-dependency unit, which is for less seriously-ill babies.

Toyah said: "I arrived at the hospital and turned to go to intensive care and they said 'this way, we've moved her' – I was so excited."

But the couple said they only really started to relax when Grace was ready to leave hospital altogether.

Tom said: "We put her in the car and thought 'yes, we're taking our baby home'."

Now 15 months old, Grace is still so little that she fits into clothes for children aged three to six months.

Her development is delayed because she did not get to spend the extra two months in the womb.

But by the time she is two, her speech and movement will be the same as other children.

And by age five, she is expected to be the same height and weight as her peers.

Now, Toyah and Tom are enjoying a normal life with her and wondering whether to extend their family.

Toyah said: "I've asked if it could happen again with another pregnancy and they don't know. They would scan me every month.

"If they could guarantee that it wouldn't happen again I would have another baby, but I don't fancy going through that again."