This tiny little bub is just so happy to be alive – and she wants the world to know it.
This photo of grinning Freya Vinje was posted on a blog and some social media last week – and from just one social media page alone it’s been shared almost 60,000 times and received more than 300,000 responses.
Freya was born in the US two years ago, aptly on Thanksgiving Day, weighing just 1.7kg. She was six weeks premmie, born by emergency caesarean after her mum had experienced complications from preeclampsia.
The gorgeous little bundle then spent another month in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before returning to her Minnesota home with her parents and big sister.
Her mum, Lauren, shared this iconic photo and the story of Freya’s entry to the world on the blog site Birth Without Fear. On the Facebook page, Love What Happens, she captioned the photo like this: “Our first daughter at five days old. 3 lbs. 14 oz., she was happy to be alive! This picture was one I looked at often to get me through the ups and downs of our NICU days. Life is so precious.”
Lauren spoke to ABC News in the US about this image that has captured the heart of the internet.
““It made me feel really good,” Lauren said. “Under the comments, I read through a lot of the stories and it’s [for] moms to know, especially moms who are going through it now … they don’t have to go through it alone.
“I had a feeling it would put some smiles on a few people’s faces.”
Today, Freya is thriving and about to celebrate her second birthday. And it seems this photo was a sign of her personality.
“We go to the store and she’s the friendliest little girl and she says hi to everybody. She’s so fun. She’s so happy,” Lauren said.
“That picture at 5 days old, you can see her little personality and you look at her now, and she hasn’t changed. She’s still the happy little girl in that photo.”
