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BABY Amie Reid saved her twin brother Jake when he stopped breathing in his sleep.

The three-month-old tot cried out and parents Hannah and Chris rushed to the cot.

Fortunately Chris, 30, had been trained to rescuscitate a baby. The twins were 15 weeks early and he had to learn before they could come home from hospital.

He said: "Jake's lips were blue and he was all floppy. Luckily, after one breath and one push on his chest, he came back.

"It's scary to think that we only woke up because his sister was crying.

"If she hadn't been crying, it would have been too late."

Jake was rushed to Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, where he stopped breathing again.

He was put on a ventilator and rushed to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where medics found his lung had collapsed and he was fighting three infections.

Hannah, 24, who is also mum to Dylan, six, Sophie, three, and Ethan, one, said: "It was so scary.We really thought we were going to lose our little boy.

"If Amie hadn't cried at that moment, he would have been beyond saving."

It wasn't the first medical drama for the twins.

It took doctors 12 minutes and seven attempts to revive 1lb 11oz Amie when Hannah went into labour just 25 weeks into her pregnancy. Jake arrived an hour later, weighing 1lb 13oz.

Hannah, of Buckie, Banffshire, said: "When I first saw them, they were so tiny.

"Their skin was like cling film and you could see everything inside. I just thought, 'Are they going to survive?'

"They were so premature you couldn't speak to them or touch them because it could put them into shock.

"One of the hardest things was that I couldn't cuddle them."

(Image: Michael Traill)

Their hands were the size of a 20p piece and Hannah's wedding ring could fit round an arm.

Amie and Jake had blood transfusions, lumbar punctures and were on oxygen during their three-month fight for life in hospital in Edinburgh and it was a huge relief for the family to get the twins home.

Amie, who was still on oxygen, arrived back a week after Jake.

Hannah said: "As soon as they were together they were holding each other's hands."

And nine months after Amie became a tiny lifesaver, the twins are happy, healthy babies.

Amie came off oxygen two weeks ago and while they are still only the average size of a three-month-old, doctors are happy with their progress.

The family are looking ahead to the twins' first birthdays this summer.

Hannah said: "When I look back, I think, 'How did we cope?' But we just did.

"I feel so blessed to have my family all together. Amie and Jake really are little miracles."

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