One of the tiniest babies ever born may get to go home with her parents by New Year's, doctors say.

Melinda Star Guido weighed only half a pound when she was born at a Los Angeles hospital in southern California.

Health officials said she is the third smallest baby in the world and the second smallest baby to survive in the United States.

Now weighing in at four pounds now, doctors say the little one is a miracle.

"This is our star baby here, smallest baby in our unit in the last 30 years," said Dr, Rangasamy Ramanathan, who oversees premature births at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

"The first few weeks, it was touch and go. None of us thought the baby was going to make it," he said.

Physicians say Melinda still has to learn to bottle feed before she can be discharged.