A BABY boy who was born weighing less than a bag of sugar is continuing to shield at home following a long stay in hospital during the coronavirus crisis.

First-time mum Gemma Maxwell, 28, gave birth on her living room floor in Yoker at just 26 weeks – 14 weeks early.

Her mum, and fiancé Niall, 29, delivered baby Finlay Iain Mackenzie, who weighed just 1lb 13oz, on the morning of March 18 – days before the lockdown was announced.

Despite not feeling well in the days before, Gemma said the birth was “completely unexpected”.

Baby Finlay spent a total of 74 days in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital before being released on May 30, weighing 5lb 5oz.

Gemma said that at the beginning, she went through phases of “not feeling like a mum” due to not having her baby with her, as well as the new parents missing out on important milestones including Finlay’s first bottle feed.

The mum told the Post: “Finlay had an extremely rough journey in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“He has spent his whole life on breathing support, from being ventilated to now being home on oxygen.

“He had numerous blood transfusions, a huge number of scares which resulted in him requiring numerous antibiotics and fluid drips and many issues.

“Due to this, we could never celebrate Finlay’s life as we were terrified he wouldn’t make it.

“Visiting at hospital was extremely tough.

“Niall and I were able to spend the first week of Finlay’s life together. However, due to lockdown restrictions, separate visiting was introduced to limit the number of people in the ward at the same time - this meant Niall and I had to visit Finlay separately for nine long weeks.

“Either of us could be with Finlay 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which we were extremely grateful for even though we couldn’t be together.

“We had heard of hospitals only allowing one parent for two hours a day.”

Gemma added: “Finlay really struggled for a long time which resulted in a lot of worry, stress and tears. As Niall was unable to be there to keep me calm, I leaned on all of the nurses and doctors every day. They were heroes.”

Due to the tough time, Gemma asked her parents to live with her and Niall during lockdown, relying on family and friends to do their shopping.

Despite Finlay now at home and weighing 7lb 4oz, the family continue to shield due to his high vulnerability.

Gemma said: “Taking Finlay home was the best day of our lives. We honestly thought we would never be able to bring our son home, but we did get there. After a long, hard struggle, Finlay defied all odds and pulled through.

“We will be forever grateful to our NHS. The support from the nurses was absolutely unbelievable. They are real life heroes and we have made friends for life in some of them.

“They saved our son and they really did make the worst situation of our lives a little bit more bearable.

“My parents are still living with us which has been a huge help and this has also allowed them to spend time with Finlay.

“Only our immediate family and friends have visited through the window or socially distanced in the garden.

“Hopefully soon the world will return to some sort of normality and Finlay’s family can give him lots of cuddles.”