90 Day Fiance: What Now?: Loren & Alexei's Birth Special featured the intimate and emotional moments before and after Loren Goldstone and Alexei Brovarnik welcomed their first child into the world.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
Loren and Alexei were weeks away from the birth of their first baby when they filmed this What Now? special. Loren, 31, was 36 weeks pregnant and her baby was due the following week.
Loren and Alexei prepared their Miami, FL, home for their child's arrival while in quarantine, and they had been in quarantine for three weeks together by this point.
Loren said she wasn't allowed to leave the house except for doctor visits, and Alexei joked they were going to have "a corona baby," which Loren promised wasn't going to be their baby's name.
Loren admitted coronavirus had stopped her from doing a lot, including going on walks outdoors or enjoying a spa day before going into labor. Loren noted the virus and quarantine regulations had taken an "emotional and mental toll" on her.
Alexei said it was "weird and strange" to have a pregnant wife during their abnormal, uncertain times.
Loren and Alexei met on her birthright trip to Israel. She was the staff leader and Alexei was the medic, and she found him super handsome.
Alexei told the camera he never anticipated he and Loren would get married after meeting on a birthright trip to Israel, but Loren said she was sure she had met the man she was going to marry at that time.
"I can't explain it... I went to Israel five times in one year to see him before we got engaged," Loren shared. "He waited 12 hours [to propose marriage] before I got on a plane to go back to New York. Like, you had time!"
RELATED LINK: 'MARRIED AT FIRST SIGHT' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO BROKE UP? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
Alexei apparently applied for a Tourist Visa twice but got denied and so the couple decided to apply for a K-1 visa, and Alexei said nothing was going to stop them.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOWOnce Alexei got approved for the K-1 visa and traveled to America, the couple had to overcome some challenges, such as Loren having strippers at her bachelorette party, but they still got married during his 90-day visit in September 2015.
Loren and Alexei also subsequently had a second ceremony in Israel in July 2016 so both of their families could celebrate and witness their union.
But then Loren learned she could pass down the Tourette gene to a child. Alexei initially feared their daughter or son having a bad case of Tourette syndrome, but Alexei said he came to realize there are "more worse things in the world" and they'd just deal with it.
It didn't take long for Loren to get baby fever, but Alexei really wanted to wait until he received his American citizenship first.
Loren and Alexei announced they were expecting Baby No. 1 in late October 2019, just one month after they celebrated four years of marriage. Two months later, the couple shared Loren was pregnant with a baby boy.
"Timing really is everything, and the fact he already became a citizen right before the whole coronavirus thing really broke out, we are just really, really lucky. I can't even imagine being stuck in that process right now," Loren told the camera on the special.
Loren laughed about how hormones were "real" and Alexei teased her for being a pain in the ass and "super moody."
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
ADVERTISEMENT
Alexei was upset his parents couldn't travel to America for the baby's birth, and Loren was also upset to have missed out on a big baby shower. Loren's mother also couldn't stay with them to help with the baby the first few days.
Loren revealed she has "an incompetent cervix" and needed to have surgery in order to prevent the baby from coming out prematurely, so she had a scheduled c-section in place at the hospital -- and she didn't have another option for the delivery, like a home birth.
Alexei wondered why he wasn't more emotional, which made him feel guilty, but he figured all the emotions would rush out of him the second he got to hold his baby boy.
In the week of the baby's due date, Loren said she was experiencing some pains and cramps.
Loren admitted she wasn't prepared for an early arrival and was "freaking out" about the idea of becoming parents and giving birth in a hospital when coronavirus is spreading.
"Alex is so cool, calm and collected, but I am not at all," Loren cried to the camera. "I don't know what to expect... Doctors are telling me to be extra cautious."
Loren anticipated Alexei would be able to join her in the operating room, but there was a chance the rules could change on the day of their baby's birth, and Loren was feeling extra stress.
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOW: WHO'S STILL TOGETHER? WHICH COUPLES HAVE SPLIT UP?? (PHOTOS)
Loren and Alexei were then shown going to the doctor's office for an ultrasound on April 14, and Loren was experiencing a headache as well as blurry vision. Her blood pressure was also high, so Loren was sent to the hospital to make sure she didn't have preeclampsia.
If Loren was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a complication characterized by high blood pressure, she'd have to undergo the c-section that very day.
"This is a condition where the treatment is delivering the baby," Dr. Santos told the couple, given preeclampsia can affect the pregnant woman's liver and kidney.
Loren said her heart fell in her chest when she heard the news and she was very scared and overwhelmed.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Loren is crying nonstop," Alexei joked, before expressing excitement.
It turned out Loren did in fact need the c-section at 1PM, and Loren gushed, "We're having a baby!"
Loren was immediately taken to the OR, but Alexei was unfortunately not allowed in until right before the baby was born.
"I want to be in there with her, but they told me to wait," Alexei said.
"This is stressful. I was going crazy out there; it was taking forever! This pregnancy wasn't feeling real to me, and now it's starting to feel real. My breathing is hyperventilating."
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: HAPPILY EVER AFTER?' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
After 15 to 20 minutes passed, Alexei was welcomed into the operating room.
Loren and Alexei's son was born on April 14 at 4:26PM at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL, weighing five pounds and 10 ounces. The baby measured 19 inches long and was two days away from being full term.
Loren was in tears as she held her baby for the first time and her lips were quivering. She asked her husband if he got a picture, and Alexei assured her that he did.
Alexei told the camera the surgery went well and Loren was doing and recovering well. However, since the baby was born two days before 37 weeks, doctors placed him in the NICU for premature babies for 24 hours.
"He's perfect," Alexei gushed, adding that he couldn't describe the experience.
ADVERTISEMENT
The following day, Loren said she felt "very out of it," "swollen" and "uncomfortable." She was on medication for preeclampsia, and since her blood pressure wasn't coming down, she was placed on a magnesium drip and was required to stay in bed for 24 hours.
Loren couldn't see her son until her blood pressure stabilized, and she said it was "really, really hard" to be away from him. Loren cried about not being able to hold or see her child.
But after 24 hours, Loren's blood pressure stabilized and so she was given permission to visit her baby in the NICU.
"We had to put on masks so he couldn't even see our faces, but just holding him for the first time, it's something I'll never forget," Loren cried. "I feel the emotions everyone said I was going to feel -- the motherly emotion. Like, I am there now."
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
After spending two days in the hospital, Loren said she just couldn't wait to start her new norm with Alexei. The baby even opened his eyes for the camera.
Loren and Alexei then had to determine whether to circumcise their son in the hospital right or have a rabbi come to their house to perform the 3,000-year-old Jewish tradition.
Traditionally, the act is done on the eighth day of the baby's life, and that's what Loren and Alexei planned to do -- at home.
Footage then captured Alexei changing Shai's diaper for the first time, and Loren gushed her husband was "such a hot dad."
Loren and Alexei finally got to go home after three nights in the hospital, but they were told to quarantine at home with the newborn. Loren said it was an "amazing feeling" to be home.
"We live for keeping him alive right now," Alexei joked. "I feel surprised by how fast I connected with him and how much he can mean to me in such a short time."
ADVERTISEMENT
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE: BEFORE THE 90 DAYS' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? (PHOTOS)
On the morning of the bris, the religious circumcision, Loren welcomed her parents and sister into her home since they had all been quarantining for a while.
Loren's parents Marlene and Bryan called their grandchild "absolutely beautiful and perfect."
It was a special moment for Loren and her family, and she said she'd never forget it. Alexei's parents and the rest of Loren's family joined the couple via videochat for the bris.
After the ceremony, Alexei announced his son's name -- Shai Josef Brovarnik.
The couple wanted an "S" name since Loren's grandfather is named Sam, and they picked Josef because that's the name of Alexei's grandfather.
"Look how far we've come," Loren said of her husband. "We'll be married five years this year and it's just so crazy, this life we've built with each other."
"I feel thankful to [Loren] for giving me this feeling and giving me this son. I think that's what's connecting me more to her," Alexei shared.
Loren added that she loved Alexei more than ever, and she called him "the best partner during a pregnancy and then afterwards."
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
Want more 90 Day Fiance spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our 90 Day Fiance homepage!
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
