WEIGHING just 3lb 7oz, James Cox fits neatly into his father Mark's hands.

But James isn't a newborn baby. He is 11 weeks old.

When he was born on September 5, he was three months early and weighed just 1lb 5oz.

James is one of about 700 babies who come through the doors of the neonatal unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital each year.

Some do not survive, but most do and go on to lead normal lives, blissfully unaware of the fear their parents felt at the time of their birth.

James's parents, Mark, 33 and Leila, 31, from Didcot, have vivid memories of his arrival.

After returning home from work, Mrs Cox, a training manager, had to be rushed into hospital and her son was born by emergency Caesarian section the next morning.

He was in special care by the time his mother came round from her anaesthetic and her first glimpse of her tiny newborn son was a photograph of him taken by the unit's nurses.

Mrs Cox said: "It was pretty terrifying. James arrived just 27 weeks and three days into my pregnancy and weighed 1lb 5oz.

"I had had a placental abruption, which means the placenta was coming away and couldn't support James any more. They don't know why this happens."

James's first baby pictures show him wired up to a ventilator, which helped him to breathe. Luckily he was stong enough to come off this 24 hours later.

But monitors continued to check his heart rate, breathing, blood oxygen levels and blood pressure, and tubes delivered food and antibiotics.

Like most of the babies in special care, James spent the first few weeks of his life in intensive care, in a double-glazed incubator set to a temperature of about 36C, and 65 per cent humidity.

For his parents, it was a long and painful three days before they could even hold him, and then it was only for three minutes.

Mrs Cox said: "He was wrapped up to keep him warm but, even so, it was just wonderful to hold him properly and I think you can see that on our first family photo."

In the coming weeks, the Coxes spent nearly every waking moment with their son and described it as a "rollercoaster of emotions".

James lost weight and went down to a low of 1lb 3oz.

But when he started taking his mother's breast milk, his weight began to creep up.

Mrs Cox explained: "My milk was introduced at a rate of 0.25ml every two hours and then increased to hourly, and then incremented by 0.25ml every 24 hours, once they established he could tolerate it.

"It was nice, as Mark and I could finally administer his feeds, using the syringe to measure it out, then push it down his mouth tube directly into his tummy."

Another great milestone came when she gave James 'kangaroo care' - in which he was snuggled up against her.

She said: "He no longer needed his eye mask and he tried opening his eyes to his dad."

But it wasn't all plain sailing.

Dips in James's blood oxygen levels would trigger alarms on his monitoring equipment, terrifying his parents.

Mrs Cox said: "There's so much going on and one day your baby can be fine and the next they're poorly and you rely so much on the nurses to reassure you. They're so knowledgeable and supportive."

James underwent two blood transfusions and also developed a gastric bug, which caused his tummy to swell alarmingly.

All these problems were treated successfully and James has moved into the low-dependency nursery of the neonatal unit and is now feeding without using a tube.

Mrs Cox said: "It's difficult to describe how fantastic the care is here.

"Having a baby in special care is terrifying, but the staff and doctors not only treat the babies, they also help you cope and during the time James has been here I have learned so much about his care. Now we're just thrilled to be finally close to taking our baby home."

While the special care nursery has had a £1m refurbishment, a fundraising drive has now been launched to raise £4m needed to refurbish the intensive care nursery.

Mrs Cox added: "I know what a difference the refurbishment of the special care nursery has made to the staff and the parents.

"When you spend time in the intensive care nursery, where the rooms are still small and crowded, and then you come into the newly-refurbished special care nursery, the difference is amazing.

"You never really know what goes on here unless you know a baby who needs special care.

"But I would urge everyone to do what they can to help it."

'I have found something I truly love and can't imagine I'll ever do anything else' Sister Katherine Reed, 33, above, lives in Headington and has worked at the neonatal unit for nine years.

She placed James Cox into his mother Leila's arms for the first time.

She said: "When I first came to work here, I really didn't think I would be here nine years later. But I have found something I truly love and can't imagine I'll ever do anything else."

She continued: "Having a baby who needs special care can be a very frightening experience, so as well as providing excellent medical and nursing care, the team here offers support to parents.

"Often, when a baby needs special care, we take them straight from the delivery room, although we try to let the parents see their baby, even if it is a first glance.

"The first aim is to stabilise them. This may mean resuscitation or help with their breathing and often it will be several hours before the parents are able to come to the unit and see the baby and talk through the situation.

"One of the things we do to help at this early stage is to take pictures of the baby, which we print out and give to the parents to keep with them.

"One of the parts of my job that I really like, as well as caring for the babies, is the relationships we develop with parents.

"Parents whose babies are in special care often don't feel proper ownership of their babies at first, because care is mainly given by the nurses but, passing through the unit in the coming weeks, seeing babies I first cared for in intensive care, now being given their first bottle, or being changed by their mum or dad, is wonderful.

"And that's partly why it would be so fantastic to have the intensive care nursery refurbished.

"These rooms weren't built to cope with all the equipment we now have - some don't even have enough plug sockets.

"And as we have seen in the new areas, light, airy, open rooms make things so much more pleasant for staff and parents, who might spend 14 hours a day, for six months or more there, with a poorly baby."

Parents power fundraising

Leading the fundraising for the JR's neonatal unit, as it has done for the past quarter of a century, is the charity Support for the Sick Newborn & their Parents (Ssnap).

The charity started small - Prof Sir Peter Tizard, who was professor of paediatrics at the JR, wrote to a small group of parents whose babies had been born and nurtured at the special care baby unit, as it was known then.

Some of those helped by the unit, are pictured at the charity's summer picnic this year, which was held at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

In the years to come, volunteers became trustees and parent help volunteers, Ssnap was registered as a charity and membership grew, raising tens of thousands of pounds for new equipment for the unit.

This year alone they expect to raise more than £100,000.

Anyone interested in fundraising for the neonatal unit or finding out more about the campaign should call 01865 221359, emailssnap@orh.nhs.uk or see www.ssnap.org.uk