“When I actually saw her, I cried even more because I had never seen anything like that but I didn’t care what she looked like, I loved her anyway.”

Brave Armani Milby, now nine months old, had to be delivered via an emergency C-section at 33 weeks after she was diagnosed with a severe form of lymphangioma which causes benign growths in the lymph vessels.

The extremely rare congenital condition left the brave tot with a swollen chest and arms which her mum Chelsey said caused her to look like a mini bodybuilder, leading her to give her the affectionate moniker ‘Mini Hulk’.

Chelsey found out that Armani had the condition after an ultrasound at the 17-week mark of the pregnancy and doctors were concerned over suspected fluid around her heart.

Depending on the area of the body affected by Lymphangioma it can cause serious health problems including problems with breathing or vision. Despite a disheartening prognosis from doctors, Chelsey always held hope for her unborn child and luckily for Armani, it’s thought her condition is treatable with surgery.

“I had never, ever, heard of the diagnosis before and honestly, I had looked into it, and I didn’t really like the results with some of the pictures,” Chelsey said.

After being born, Armani and her family were moved over 100 miles away to Cincinnati for three months in a specialist hospital where she began to make her recovery against the odds.

“I battled postpartum depression really bad, and I had to push that away to try to be the strongest person I could be for her and for my other two kids,” she said.