Ava I. Stinson — the “miracle baby” from Southern Ontario who had to be rushed to Women & Children’s Hospital for neonatal care after her birth — is back on Canadian soil, thriving in a Hamilton hospital.

Now 7 weeks old, she has more than doubled her weight to 4 pounds 10 ounces, well above her low mark of 1 pound 15 ounces shortly after birth.

“She seems to be doing great,” her mother, Natalie Paquette, said this week by phone from Hamilton. “They say she’s right where she should be. No complications so far.”

The first few hours of little Ava’s life made big news on both sides of the border.

Ava weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces when she was born June 25, more than three months before her due date.

A shortage of beds for such premature infants, a persistent problem in Southern Ontario, forced authorities to transfer her to Children’s Hospital in Buffalo. But that move didn’t go without a hitch, as an intense storm grounded a helicopter, forcing the neonatal transport team from McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton to transport Ava by ambulance.

So Ava came to Buffalo before her mother ever stepped foot in the United States.

A brief media firestorm raged in Southern Ontario, when Paquette and Richard Stinson, the baby’s father, had to monitor her condition by phone for three days.

Her parents thought their lack of passports and Paquette’s recovery from caesarean surgery prevented them from crossing the border, although U. S. customs officials have insisted that the couple never was denied entry into the U. S.

Paquette and Stinson followed Ava to Buffalo three days after her arrival, then traveled back and forth during the baby’s 21-day stay in Children’s Hospital, for which, Paquette said, Ontario health insurance paid.

Ava has developed some problems resulting from her premature birth, including a partially collapsed lung, skin infections and a heart valve that wouldn’t close. Medical treatment and time have mostly cleared up those problems, her mother suggested.

“Ava is feisty,” she said. “She doesn’t like to be bundled up; she likes her arms out. But she’s a very happy baby, and she definitely recognizes her mom and dad.”

Paquette said she remains in shock over the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s birth.

“I keep asking myself, ‘Did it really happen?’ But going to see Ava makes it more real.”

Paquette had nothing but praise for the staffs at both Children’s Hospital and Ronald Mc- Donald House in Buffalo, where she eventually stayed on weekends while commuting on weekdays.

“When Ava gets a little older, I’d like to bring her back to Children’s to show the nurses and to show her where she spent the first days of her life,” her mother said.

And what will Paquette tell her about the whole experience?

“That she’s my miracle angel.”