IT is a miracle that Natalie Rendell has turned out to be a normal schoolgirl. The four year old charging around school with the energy of most healthy children her age was never expected to see the school playground.

Instead, when Natalie was born four months premature at Princess Margaret Hospital on December 6, 1996, doctors doubted whether she would even see her first Christmas.

But in spite of weighing only 1lb 10oz at birth, she hung on, spending her first 33 days attached to a ventilator, and another 57 days being fed oxygen after that.

Because her lungs and kidneys had not developed properly, she suffered from water on the brain and had to have a 'bubble', or small reservoir, inserted in her head to regulate the liquid.

At four months, Natalie contracted a form of meningitis and had to have another operation. She has also seen off pneumonia and septicaemia during her dogged fight for life.

Nearly five years and eight operations after she was born, Natalie is running around the playground at Walcot's Mount- ford Manor School like any other, carefree, little girl.

Her teacher Robin Smith, 25, says she has emerged from her ordeal "a happy, chatty, little girl", only distinguishable from her classmates by her extreme dislike of glasses.

"She refuses to wear them and it's a constant battle to keep them on," he says.

"The first day she was in school, she snapped a pair in two when either she or her friend managed to stand on them. She broke another in the same way yesterday, so she's already on her third pair."

Natalie's glasses are a souvenir of her premature birth, as she has been left with poor sight in her left eye and none in her right although she still pretends she can see with it.

She also has a tube running from her head to her chest to regulate the level of water on her brain, and will need further operations at the ages of seven, 14, and 21, to cure the problem.

Natalie's mum, Sarah Humber, 27, says the fact that Natalie is now doing so well is like waking up from the nightmare of Christmas 1996 when her daughter was constantly at death's door.

"For the first two months, the hospital were saying things like 'she's probably not going to survive, or she's going to be paraplegic and not be able to move, you'll have to push her around in a wheelchair'," she says.

When Natalie was born, Sarah and husband Michael already had four healthy children Adam, nine, Kelly-Ann, eight, Tristian, seven, and Calvin, six and it was an ordeal not to be able to bring Natalie home, too.

Natalie was so frail that Sarah wasn't even allowed to hold her for two months, and it was only when doctors at Bristol's Southmead Hospital offered to remove cataracts on Natalie's eyes that Sarah glimpsed hope for the first time.

"I knew then that there was a chance she was going to be all right, because they wouldn't have done it for nothing. It was such a relief," Sarah says.

At six months Natalie was allowed home to Harrington Walk, Walcot, for the first time, and Christmas 1997 was a vast improvement on 1996, as Natalie crawled for the first time on Christmas Day.

"That was because she was after some sweets in a stocking," laughs Sarah. "If you've got something she wants, she's very determined."

Now Sarah and Michael are able to enjoy Natalie talking amusing four-year old nonsense such as: "I like school because it's rainy."

And, as they watch her dance to her favourite song, Aqua's Barbie Girl, they can even speculate on a future they thought Natalie would never enjoy.

"She's spoiled our dreams because she's not allowed to be an airline pilot or an astronaut but she does say she's going to have a baby," said Sarah.

As she approaches her fifth birthday, Natalie is still small for her age, and wears clothes to fit three-year-olds.

But she is almost a metre tall now, and at two stones, weighs just under the average for children her age.

Natalie still has to be careful about hitting her head, as a blow in the wrong place could kill her, and may have to cope with liver problems as well as her scheduled operations in future.

But the doctor who first looked after her at Princess Margaret Hospital, Ravi Chinthapalli, says he is delighted to see her complete her first journey from incubator to playground.

"I'm absolutely delighted Natalie is ready to start her school days," he says.

"She's doing very well now, and Natalie's mother has worked so hard to care for her little girl. I bet her daughter's first day at school was a very special moment for her."