It seemed a fairytale first pregnancy for the Williams Smith family - they found out Nicole was pregnant on Christmas Eve and on Valentine's Day they discovered it was twin boys - Wayne's dream come true.

“I always wanted twin boys, ever since I was a child,” says Wayne.

And Nicole was shocked but excited. She says: “I was thinking I would need two of everything.”

Twins were higher risk but Nicole rested at home as her body expanded rapidly and doctors moved forward the estimated time of arrival to August.

But when Nicole suffered a tummy ache on May 2 she played it safe and called the hospital.

“I knew I had to carry them 24 weeks. I actually kept a calendar and kept crossing off the weeks. When we hit 23 weeks I said ‘OK. kids, one more and we are home free'.”

But when she reached King Edward VII Memorial Hospital the fairytale was already turning sour.

“They told me I was in labour. I thought I can't have them at 23 weeks and a couple of days.”

Drugs were given to stave off the imminent birth while steroids were used to help develop lungs which are the last things to form in foetuses.

“But they said it was close but the kids looked fine and healthy.”

Wayne, who was away with the Bermuda Regiment in North Carolina, was horrified when news reached him.

“I thought, ‘Oh My God this can't be happening'. Most medical professionals think it is only viable after 24 weeks.

“I couldn't get back until the following day but the babies had been born already.”

In the middle of the night the waters broke but Nicole was told the birth could be delayed if dilation of the cervix was kept under four centimetres.

But by noon the next day there was no stopping it, with both children set to come feet first - normally adding to the risk as the head can get stuck in the canal.

“They said they were so small it wasn't an issue.”

But when Nicole thought she felt a foot exit, an already difficult birth hit crisis point.

“The doctor yelled ‘Cord!' and all hell broke loose. It was like something out of E.R.

“They put an oxygen mask on me. Christian's umbilical cord had come out and through and I was rushed to surgery where they did a Caesarean section.

Wayne remembers: “It's a hysterically traumatic experience. I got to the airport at four-ish and called my father who told me Christian had died.

“The umbilical cord had came away in her womb, starving the baby of oxygen and nutrients. No one can explain why this happened.”

A Canadian baby expert, Dr. Eugene Outerbridge, now chief of paediatrics at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, happened to be on the Island and was drafted in. “It was all hands on deck to save these boys,” says Wayne.

Local doctors Steven West and Alex Barron were present.

Wayne said: “For 25 minutes Dr. Barron tried to revive Christian and like a good Smith he fought a good fight, he moved his arm a little, but he had been robbed of oxygen and blood for too long.”

Nicole said: “The next thing I know I wake up and they told me Christian didn't survive but the other one was still alive.”

“How they pulled that off I still don't know. They got him breathing even though his lungs were hard. The doctors at Boston Children's Hospital were incredibly impressed.”

Dr. Barron said he believed Johnathan, who is now nine months old or five months if his early birth is taken into account - was one of the smallest and youngest babies to survive after being born in Bermuda.

Weighing just one pound three ounces, Johnathan's chances looked slim but Dr. Barron said he had fighting spirit right from the start.

He said: “I was shocked to see how vigorous and strong he was at birth.” But although he was breathing at birth, his under-formed muscles would soon tire and a team of medics had to keep his heart and lungs going as they rushed him to the intensive care unit.

Once there medication had to be dropped into his lungs via a tube to ape the chemicals normally present in properly formed babies which aids breathing.

Nicole continued: “He looked like a little alien. His skin was transparent and his eyes were fused shut. I wasn't allowed to hold him. You lose it. I was a basket case.”

Wayne: “I got there and tried to comfort Nicole. We shed a lot of tears when I went to see our surviving son. I broke down in tears again. I could not believe how small he was.

“He was eleven inches long but because he was not stretched out he could fit in the palm of my hand. His arm was smaller than my little finger and I could see the veins through his skin.

“He was critically ill. It was the scariest thing I have experienced in my life.”

Battling severe lung disease, Johnathan urgently needed to be sent abroad.

“They (the lungs) were too small and underdeveloped. He needed to be kept on a respirator. The lungs are the last thing to develop on a foetus,” says Wayne.

Nicole hoped they might pick the children's hospital in Toronto where her family is from, but doctors said he might not last the flight. Instead he went to Boston.

While they waited for the air ambulance, the couple had to say their goodbyes to Christian.

Nicole, who had yet to see her surviving son, said: “At first I didn't want to see Christian but my mum said I would want to seem him because he's absolutely beautiful.

“Christian looked like a little doll. He had everything. Eyebrows, hair, nails.

“I was stunned. You have an overwhelming feeling of love and I thought, ‘it's all been worth it'.

“I would do it all over again just for the incredible feeling of love as I held him.

“I tell friends who were still pregnant and I tell them the wonderful feeling when you first hold that child.

“That's what I remember, that incredible feeling of love.

“They let me hold him for a while and they took a picture of him with Johnathan. They are not identical but sometimes Johnathan looks so much like Christian.”

Wayne says: “It was difficult to choose a name for a child that had died.

“We got to hold Christian. It was tough, he was even smaller than Johnathan. He looked a bit more like me than Johnathan.

“It was pretty traumatic when at 10 o'clock they had to take him away from us. We told him we loved him. We cried some more and tried to comfort each other.”

And having waved goodbye to a son she would never know Nicole, too weak to leave the hospital, now had to part with Wayne as he journeyed with their son to Boston.

It was another emotional parting. “I promised to look after him and do everything I could do to make sure the doctors and nurses did everything possible for him.”

A physically and emotionally exhausted Wayne got to Boston at four in the morning, having crossed between America and home twice in 12 hours.

But at least Johnathan was now in very good hands. “They have some of the best neo-natal people in the world.

“There were several babies and small children but he was the sickest child there.”

But with the crisis comes camaraderie. “It was comforting that there was another Bermudian family there.

“We cried and prayed together and drew strength and encouragement. I tried to sleep on the sofa for about an hour. I basically spent from Friday to Monday morning, just about every waking hour, by Johnathan's side, watching and praying.

“I went to the chapel and prayed with the chaplain. I got the Jewish rabbi to pray for Johnathan. I didn't worry about denominations, I got anybody and everybody on his side.

“I was talking to him the whole time telling him to hang in and fight, he's a Smith, telling him that mummy would be there soon.”

The next Nicole she saw Johnathan it was via a website camera, hooked up in the Boston hospital as a service for families abroad.

She says: “It gave me the will to keep going.”

But Wayne felt torn when it was time to leave Johnathan and return to Bermuda to bury Christian.

“It was tough to leave, I felt bad, I wasn't there to see him born and here I was leaving him again.

“The funeral was difficult. I told myself to be strong for my wife, I delayed any expression of grief at least for the duration of the funeral.”

But Wayne also had to face his own thoughts: “I always dreamed of them playing football together and being opening batsmen for Cleveland County cricket club.”

Nicole found there was little time to gather her thoughts before the funeral and the couple then had to pack and fly out to see Johnathan soon afterwards.

Nicole said: “I didn't have time to grieve. The funeral was hard. I wanted a small funeral of family and close friends but it was a little overwhelming in the end.

“They couldn't find a casket small enough. They had to make one.

“We had to find something small enough for him to wear, they tried doll's clothes, my cousin made a little gown and hat and a little bed. He looked like a little angel.”

Tomorrow: Jonathan's epic battle for life.