E’Layah Faith Pegues had been scheduled to come into the world last Tuesday, but things didn’t go according to plan—she was born 14 weeks early on Sept. 23, weighing a miniscule 10 ounces. This made her one of the smallest surviving babies ever born.

“Five or even 10 years ago, it probably wouldn’t have been possible for her to survive, much less thrive,” Dr. Andrew Herman told the Charlotte Observer. Herman is a neonatologist and chief medical officer at Levine Children’s Hospital, where E’Layah was born.

The baby is still pretty tiny, weighing in at 3 pounds, 10.7 ounces. But that’s five times her birth weight, and she’s expected to go home within a week or two. Herman said E’Layah’s health and growth was the result of a “combination of talent, perseverance and creativity” on the part of her medical team, and the incredible support and love of her family.

“E’Layah is our miracle girl,” said her mother, Megan Smith. “We weren’t going to give up on her.”

There were a few terrifying moments—when Smith noticed the baby was no longer moving inside her, and had to undergo an emergency cesarean section, and the time she got a call from a nurse in the middle of the night, informing her E’Layah had to be revived with CPR.

Still, E’Layah is on the right track.

“Growth is her ticket out of here,” Herman said. “I expect E’Layah to have a wonderful life and to be a healthy kid.”