A couple whose baby learned to stand at eight-weeks-old - say she was inspired by watching her dad view strongman clips on YouTube!

Thirty-one-year-old Tezra Finn-Johnston, and twenty-three-year-old Emily Derrick, say they first noticed their daughter Lula’s strength when they left hospital.

Baby Lula’s great grandmother is longstanding Saundersfoot community councillor Tessa Pearson, while dad Tezra also grew up in Stepaside.

The couple who live in Bristol say that at an early stage Lula was able to support her own head.

Lula was born on January 31 and weighed just 5lbs 9oz and was on the 5th percentile - weighing less than five per cent of other babies her age. Now 15-weeks-old, Lula is able to stand unassisted, supporting her own weight.

As Tezra and Lula have been watching strongman clips on Youtube, they think Lula might have been inspired.

“When she was about a month old, she was having a tantrum and I tried to sit her on my knee to calm her, but instead of sitting down, she just stood on my knee and wouldn’t bend her legs,” said first time dad Tezra.

“She did it a few more times later on in the weeks - eventually I thought well if she can do it while she’s annoyed, maybe she can do it when she’s happy.

“I tried to hold her and supported her, and she managed to take her own weight.

“Everyone seems to think that it’s unusual that she can hold herself up, even just sitting, let alone standing.

“I asked my mum - I’m one of four, and none of my siblings could hold their weight at her age.

“From everything I’m reading, it should be about nine months to a year that they should be able to support their own weight.”

The couple first noticed this when they brought Lula home from the hospital, five days after she was born.

“Pretty much from the day we left hospital she was able to support her head a little bit more than we thought she should be able to,” continued Tezra.

“She was holding it up for a few seconds and that shouldn’t be for a few weeks, but pretty much straight away she was able to do that.

“Then we watched this ‘Babies’ documentary on Netflix and on there they said babies are inherently programmed to crawl from birth.

“So I put her down on the mat and she was trying to crawl a bit. Then I put my arm behind her and she was able to push herself up the mat - propelling herself from my hand with her legs.

“She can also do it lying on her front as well. We noticed that and she was able to do that first time, so that was impressive. I’m just assisting her in doing what she likes doing - the first time we did it, she smiled at me.

“It’s like she’s showing off - she looks at you and smiles, it’s like she’s trying to be a big girl!”

Tezra is a big fan of strongman competitions, regularly watching videos on YouTube.

He claims Lula looks engaged when they watch the videos together - he jokes she might have been inspired by these to train herself.

Tezra thinks another reason for her strength might be a good muscle-to-weight ratio, based on the fact she was a small baby at birth.

One more might be her genes - Tezra stated that he’s always been able to build muscle quickly, and started doing weight training and arm-wrestling when he was thirteen.

He often watches some of the strongmen competitions and clips on Youtube with Lula on his knee.

Baby Lula isn’t able to walk yet, but the parents are fearing her first step might be closer than they think.

“When I give her rattles and stuff to play with, she doesn’t seem young enough to want them,” said mum Emily who is a postwoman.

“She just seems a lot older than she actually is. I’m just like - oh don’t grow up yet!”