Last Christmas turned out to be a memorable one for Laurel Triggs, but not in the way she had planned.
Rather than having a quiet celebration at home with her partner, before welcoming in their first child in March, the couple spent the day beside an incubator in the neonatal unit.
Baby Indigo arrived unexpectedly a few days before the big day weighing just 2lb 7oz (1.1kg).
They had no time to buy presents, and Christmas dinner was a bowl of soup.
"The nurses tried very hard to make it a special occasion," says Laurel, who lives in Milton Keynes with her partner.
"They made little stockings which they hung on their incubators. Indigo got a toy, which at that time was bigger than her."
Indigo still has the toy - a grey fluffy penguin puppet, which she tosses around on the floor. She is now a lively, smiley baby, crawling around happily, and fascinated by the baubles on the Christmas tree.
Her weight dropped below 2lb (0.9kg) at one point, but she made a remarkable recovery from then on, steadily gaining weight every week.
"Indigo was born early as my waters broke at 26 weeks gestation," Laurel recalls, "We managed to hold on to her for an extra 10 days or so and then she just couldn't wait and she was born nine days before Christmas."
Indigo was born by emergency section, then taken immediately to the neonatal unit, where she was put in an incubator and given help with her breathing.
On Christmas Day, baby Indigo achieved her first major milestone - her parents were able to dress her for the first time.
"We didn't have any clothes for Indigo, as we didn't know she was coming," says the 28-year-old.
"We borrowed a pink sleep suit from the neonatal department and it was (for babies) up to 5lb (2.3kg). At the time, Indigo weighed about 2lb 4 ounces (1kg) so it did swamp her."
Premature babies (Facts from Bliss, the premature baby charity)
Laurel says there were a lot of ups and downs in hospital but they were "very, very lucky". Indigo had no major complications and left hospital exactly two months to the day that she was born.
"They let us go on the Sunday morning, we brought her home and put her in a Moses basket here, and just stared at her for hours and hours and hours, and just couldn't believe that she was finally at home," said Laurel.
Indigo will spend this Christmas with her parents, and her mother's family in Devon.
"Christmas this year will involve a lot of presents for Indigo, she's going to be thoroughly spoilt because she's got two Christmas' worth of presents to have," says Laurel. "We'll have a big dinner, and everyone will just enjoy her."
To any other parents who might find themselves in hospital over Christmas this year, Laurel's advice is to make the best of it.
"Those little things that you can do to make it special you will look back on and think 'Oh I'm so pleased that I did that', because neonatal can be a bit of a drudge, the same thing every day," she says.
"So I'd just say try and make it as special as you can because, at the end of the day, it is still your baby's first Christmas."
Dr Jane Hawdon, a consultant in the neonatal unit of University College London Hospitals, says staff on her ward try to make Christmas a relaxed and festive time for parents and babies.
"Each baby will have a stocking on its incubator, and in the morning little gifts that the nurses have organised," she says. "I've seen little Santa hats for babies, and Christmas cards for parents with their baby's photo."
But she says the atmosphere changes if something sad happens, and the whole unit recognises that. Her advice to parents is simple.
"Enjoy as much as you can because there will be memories," she says.
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