Couple surprises family with their baby who spent 170 days in NICU and their reactions say it all

The birth of a child in a family brings joy to all, be it the parents, grandparents, aunts or uncles. The addition of the newest family member calls for a celebration, even more, when the family has to wait for days to finally see the child. @tylermiraya, shared her family’s reactions to seeing her son for the first time after he spent 170 days in the NICU and it was pure happiness.

The video begins with the overlay text, “You drive 18 hours to surprise your family with your miracle baby that’s been in the NICU 170 days.” The child can be seen sitting in the car seat. The text then reads, “We told them he couldn’t come due to his doctor’s appointments, so they had no clue!”

First, the mother places the child outside her great-grandma’s house in a car seat. She was thrilled to see him. She says, “Oh hi, Eli. Hi, little baby.”  

Next, the mom puts him outside her aunt’s house. She comes running outside and first hugs the mom. Then starts crying looking at the child and says, “Oh my God! Oh, hi baby!” and starts clapping looking at him.

In the end, she brings him to her mother, brother, and sister’s place. The mom starts jumping as she is coming out of the door. They all start shouting, “Oh my gosh!” The mother then says, “I’m not trying to scare the baby. I was like she might have just left a baby in her door, bro.”

The video went viral with about 4.4 million views. It is captioned, “As soon as we got the OK from Eli’s doctors we packed up the car and headed to see my family! Eli slept the entire trip until the last two hours stretch where he stared and admired his brother Donut the whole time.”

Many people loved the family’s response to meeting the child for the first. @bridge_truth commented, “The way Aunt Rue just gazed at him, that baby is adored.” @dionne2894 wrote, “I just love how she ran to hug the mum first. From a NICU parent, I appreciate that.” @francescafitfxtraining expressed, “Every day I'm crying over complete strangers on this app! Bless your family!” @rahamahassanx said, “That baby is so loved, so sweet.” @ruesviews0 commented, “Pure Joy! Crying all over again… Eli has all of Aunt Rue’s heart!!”

The mother Tyler Edmond told GoodMorningAmerica about the excuses she made to her family. "I was just making it so inconvenient. I was like, 'We can't come that time because he has this appointment and he has that appointment and there's just no way he can make it.' But little [did my mother] know, I had already moved all of those appointments that opened up a 10-day vacation," Edmond said.

She also spoke about the family's reactions. "My grandmother's reaction -- we didn't show the whole entire thing but she shed a couple of tears," she said. "My Aunt Rue -- she was just floored and we hugged in the yard for about a good five minutes … And my sister was just excited. She couldn't contain herself and the same thing with my mom."

Eli was born on November 15, 2022, via C-section at 23 weeks, weighing about 1.9 ounces. The child spent 170 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Betty H Cameron Women’s & Children’s Hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina. "He was a little tiny thing," Edmond said. The father added that Eli was so small at birth that the infant was only "the size of his hand." Now, the kid uses an oxygen tank at home to help him breathe and will be fed through a gastrostomy tube, or G-tube, for the remaining year. However, the parents say that they are happy to see the positivity that came from the video. "It's brought a lot of people a lot of joy … [and] a lot of people have shared their preemie stories, like, 'I had a son who was born in the NICU. He's 22 now,'" said the mom.