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Tricia Santiago, a Walmart employee from Texas, is thankful that son Emmett has a "fighting spirit" and is home after he spent 153 days in the hospital

Emmett weighed just 1 lb. when he was born at 22 weeks and 6 days in May

“We definitely tried to stay hopeful,” she says

A Texas family is looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with their micropreemie at home after he made his way into the world way far earlier than expected.

“It was definitely a surprise,” mom Tricia Santiago tells PEOPLE. “Definitely had some stomach pain. So we thought, ‘You know, we'll go to the hospital just in case out of precaution.’ "

But as they walked into Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine, Santiago's water broke.

After being immediately transferred to Baylor University M

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