Bespectacled Claire Tan sat between her parents, smiling shyly.

The nine-year-old weighed just 811g at birth. She was born prematurely, after a gestation period of just 28 weeks.

Of course she doesn't recollect the first two months of her life, partly isolated from her mother and spent in a hospital incubator.

'It was only from the photos we have of her then that she learnt she was born three months too early,' her mother Jemelle Chang, 36, said.

Claire was actually due in February 1999, but decided to make her early appearance in November 1998.

Her father, Mr Tan Boon Han, 38, said that during that first month, tension was extremely high.

'She was 30cm long, very dark and wrinkly. Her weight fell to 630g after the first week. Even the doctors were not optimistic then.

'They kept saying that she only had a 50-50 chance of surviving,' he said.

Madam Chang remembered how she dreaded each time the telephone rang.

'There was this one time the hospital called to inform me that Claire's tummy was terribly bloated. Having read that preemies may suffer what is known as rotting tummy, I thought 'this is it',' she recalled.

She even prayed to God to take Claire and to stop her suffering 'if it was not meant to be'.

It turned out that Claire was just reacting to the eye drops given to her to help dilate her pupils.

'Every day, we could only hope and pray that she put on 30g, and we often wondered how long it would take for her to weigh 2kg. When she did, we would be able to take her home,' Mr Tan said.

It was on Valentine's Day - Feb 14 - that Claire finally did go home.

'And for the next two-and-a-half months, her daddy and I were paranoid about hygiene and cleanliness. We were constantly washing our hands,' Madam Chang said, laughing.

For the next five months, her baby was fed only mother's milk.

'When I had to return to work after those five months, I cried uncontrollably,' Madam Chang said. Claire was then cared for by her grandparents.

'I started her in pre-nursery when she was two. When she was in nursery and then in kindergarten, she was the tiniest in her cohort. Her friends called her 'Baby' affectionately. We couldn't help but compare her with them - they were all at least a head taller and much stronger,' Madam Chang said.

When Claire started primary school, Madam Chang stopped work to 'nurture her and help her with her schoolwork'.

Now a Primary 3 pupil at Nan Chiau Primary School, Claire has caught up with her peers - both physically and mentally.

'We were worried that she may not be able to cope with her schoolwork. She is doing Higher Chinese and that adds a lot of pressure, but she tells us she is coping well and has no intention to change schools,' Madam Chang said.

With her daughter's level of confidence growing, so did hers.

'I used to just pray for her health. Now I am the typical Singaporean parent, worrying about her schoolwork,' laughed Madam Chang.