Doctors told a mom her unborn baby wouldn’t live — then she gave birth to a superhero.

Kentucky mom Chelsey Milby gave birth to Armani Milby via emergency C-section at 33 weeks after her daughter was diagnosed with a rare congenital condition that left her with swollen arms.

Armani, who is now nine months old, is nicknamed “baby hulk” or “mini hulk” because her rare birth defect, called lymphangioma, left her looking like a baby bodybuilder, reported Caters.

Lymphangioma, which causes benign growths in the lymph vessels, can cause problems with breathing and vision. Luckily for Armani, she can be treated with surgery.

However, doctors told her mother she probably wouldn’t live to breathe her first breath. According to Healthline, the rare condition appears in one out of 4,000 births.

“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,” said Chelsey, 33.

“When I found out, to be honest, I was devastated, I was heartbroken. I didn’t understand what happened, what went wrong, because I had two other healthy babies, and I cried every day. Every day, I asked God why,” the Campbellsville resident added.

Chelsey feels blessed she was able to prove doctors wrong after they gave her baby a “zero chance” of survival

At 17 weeks, doctors did an ultrasound and were worried that Armani had dangerous fluid buildup around her heart.

“We never considered an abortion even though it was mentioned to us almost immediately after it was discovered there were some major concerns with our unborn baby, but we just wanted to know how we could help her when she was born,” she said. 

“They literally gave her a zero percent chance. They said she wouldn’t make it and that she probably wouldn’t be crying when she came out,” she added. 

Chelsey’s baby survived, but her pregnancy wasn’t without challenges.

Armani was born weighing 12 lbs, nearly three times the amount of a normal baby. Chelsey said people would ask her if she was giving birth to triplets because her baby bump was so big. 

“My body was shutting down. Something was telling me it was time to get her out. I was almost 200 pounds, and my health was getting really bad,” she said. 

“I suffered every day; I could never sleep. I was extremely sick,” she added.

The pregnancy became too difficult for Chelsey to bear, and that’s why doctors performed an emergency C-section.

“That’s why I had them take her at 33 weeks because my body was shutting down and it was getting harder every day to live life and actually breathe because I was so uncomfortable as I had to keep getting fluid drained out of my stomach,” she said. 

“To everyone’s surprise, she came out crying and everybody in the room was emotional. No one knew what was going to happen. It’s a very magical story,” she added. 

Armani’s dad Blake was outside the surgery room praying that both Armani and Chelsey would be alright.

“I remember sitting outside in the hallway, they took me back there for the delivery and while they’re in there giving her an epidural, I was out there pacing the hall, just praying,” he said.

Chesley said she had a panic attack during the delivery, but was so happy when she saw her baby’s face.

“They had to give me something to calm me down because I was having a panic attack. I was screaming and crying. I was just a wreck, it was horrible,” she recalled. 

Meeting her baby made the pain worth it.

“In the back of our minds, we were both wondering what was going to happen. However, she just shocked us all and proved everyone wrong,” she said.

“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,” she continued. “I had never seen anyone look like that before so I was just shocked to be honest, but grateful at the same time.”

After Armani was born, the whole family traveled 100 miles to Cincinnati so that Armani could be treated at a specialist hospital.

Armani will have surgery later this year to remove extra lymphatic vessels so she can be a normal size. She’ll also need more surgeries to remove excess skin in the future. 

Chelsey is relieved her daughter survived but she is battling her own demon — postpartum depression.

“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. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride. It really has been a rollercoaster ride and every day, I struggle a little bit.”

Chesley said she thinks her baby will be able to lead a normal life. 

“Now she’s squishy, I just call her my little squishy baby. She’s doing very well,” she said. 

“She has a lot of extra skin. It’ll all go away, and she’ll be the normal-looking baby. She’ll just have significant scarring from the surgeries and everything,” she explained. 

She feels blessed that her “miracle baby” is happy.

“She got lucky. She’s not deformed or anything like that. I’ve actually seen some cases where they have and God bless them kids, they’re fighters,” she said. 

“She’s happy. She hardly ever cries unless she wants to be held. We’re trying to do everything for this baby and give her the best life possible,” she added.

Chelsey thinks Armani will be saying her first word soon. 

“She finally rolled over and she’s trying to say ‘momma’, I’m pretty sure, she’s getting really close.

“She’s doing wonderful. She literally is my miracle baby, and we just love her so much.”