A premature baby develops an almost instant second family, the hospital staff at Newborn Intensive Care Units. Children's Hospital threw a party Sunday to reunite the babies with caregivers who got them through those first difficult days and weeks.

It's been a party that was years in the making, bringing together doctors, nurses, parents and babies, offering a chance for staff to find out how well their former patients are doing since leaving the unit.

The celebration of life was open to babies born at the hospital from 2005 through 2007.

It's hard for the Davie family to distinguish who their twin girls look like the most. "My family says me, his family says him, I see a little bit of both of us,” says Jill Davie of Omaha, mother of 10-month-old Morgan and Tara.

"They were 11 weeks early so very, very premature,” says Jill. "One was two pounds, six ounces and the other was two pounds, seven ounces. A lot of breathing issues early on, but the staff at the NICU was wonderful."

The girls were just some of the several hundred children born with their lives in the balance.

Chris Burns’ 22-month-old triplets were born at Children’s Hospital. "They had premature lungs and like my husband said, they had to be on the ventilator and they needed help eating through tubes and so they had a little bit of issues, but really it was just mostly giving them time to get where they needed to be."

This party, a combination family reunion and health update was important, especially for NICU nurses said Dr. Brady Kerr. "A lot of them had some major bonds that they've formed over long periods of time when their kids were really sick."

It's a bond that for these parents made those really tough first days a little less stressful. “They kept giving us positives every single day and after awhile, we were just waiting for 'em to come home.”

Nearly 400 parents and children came back to the hospital for the reunion.