Soldier Sneaks Into NICU to Surprise Wife and Preemie Twins After 7-Month Deployment

Getty Images | Larry W. Smith

As she sat holding her 10-day-old prematurely born daughter in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a hospital, Cydney Cooper, a resident of Kansas, received the surprise of her life, as her husband, Skylar, popped into the room after a seven-month deployment in Kuwait.

Skylar, a member of the Kansas Army National Guard, had been away and wasn’t expected to visit home until spring.

Cydney had given birth to twin daughters Emma and Kyla at 33 weeks on Jan. 24. She had come down with the flu and had gone into early labor as a result.

As a mother of two sons, 3-year-old Leighton and 1-year-old Corbett, Cydney had been dividing her time between caring for her two sons at home and rushing back to NICU to attend to her newborn daughters. Going back and forth had started to take its toll on the 27-year-old mother. If you thought that raising two boys was hard, try raising two boys and taking care of two prematurely born daughters all by yourself. It would be enough to drive anyone to their wits’ end.

Cydney admitted she had been “hanging on by a string.”

On Feb. 4, Cydney was visiting her preemie twins at the NICU.

Before the soldier walked into the room with an American flag balloon and flowers in hand, he was messaging Cydney on an update of the newborn twins.

As Skylar came up beside his wife, it took a second before Cydney registered her husband’s face, but when she did, her head dropped and her hand came over her face in disbelief. “Oh my God,” she said and started crying, visibly overcome with emotions.

The heartwarming homecoming was captured on video and captioned: “1 year of crazy, 1000s of miles, 1 solo pregnancy and delivery, 48392 Skype calls, some superheros, a few plane rides, 12 NICU days, tons of help from family and friends, and many tears later....A soldier came home.”

Ever since it was posted, the video has racked up more than 9.6 million views and has been shared more than 110,000 times.

Social media users were quick to react to this emotional video.

One user wrote, “They’re such a sweet couple with a new baby and now they’re complete bless them all.”

Meanwhile, another commented, “watching this, I notice I was crying too. So tender, so sweet.”

“That’s so awesome very touching how great feelings can be,” a third one wrote.

Cydney told Good Morning America: “I was in shock. I felt like I had to almost take a breath again. I had been bouncing around so much between our boys and the girls, I was also relieved.”

The tearful mother shared: “It was an incredible moment to see him meet his daughters for the first time. We just want to get them home now.”

These days, Cydney says the family is back together and doing great, including little Emma and Kyla. “It was a beautiful surprise and I still can’t believe he is home. Our girls are doing fine! They just need some more time to grow and our boys have never been happier.”

Indeed, we all can agree that time spent with family is time well spent, and for our folk in the military, those moments mean so very much.