Kailyn Lowry detailed the trauma of having to leave one of her twin babies in the NICU as she returned home with her other newborn.
The “Teen Mom 2” star, 31, announced last week that she prematurely welcomed twin babies No. 6 and 7 via C-section with boyfriend Elijah Scott.
However, Lowry discussed the heartbreak of her twins being admitted into the NICU and her newborn son being discharged before her infant daughter on Friday’s episode of her “Barely Famous” podcast.
“For me, it was you couldn’t be there with me in the NICU when I went,” Lowry recalled to Scott of dealing with going back and forth to the hospital, which was an hour’s round-trip drive from their home.
“[The girl twin] was away from her twin; we were away from her. When we were home, we still couldn’t process it because there was so much going on here,” Lowry said.
The “16 and Pregnant” alum said that she has no idea how they were able to hold it all together while balancing everything.
“I don’t think I’ve processed it to this day. We went to the pediatrician yesterday, and I’m still very much concerned about so many things,” Lowry said.
The MTV personality recalled breaking down while visiting her daughter, whom she refers to as Baby B, in the hospital while her husband stayed home with their newborn son, Baby A, and her five other children. While she was in tears, a doctor asked if she needed psychological help.
“I said I have my own therapist, but I’m away from my infant, and my infant is away from her twin. And I feel like that in and of itself was enough for me to cry,” Lowry said. “And I know he didn’t mean anything by it; he was covering all his legal bases, but it also felt like a punch in the gut because I felt like it was a normal reaction for me to cry.”
She continued, “But in the same breath, I get it because I’ve gone through postpartum depression, and so I understand, too, covering all the bases to make sure if someone does need resources… I don’t think it was the way he said it but how he said it.”
Lowry welcomed Baby A and Baby B five weeks early and couldn’t hold them until 24 hours after they were born and all set up in the NICU.
“They weren’t just there for a couple of days. We were there for a couple of weeks, and we learned so much about the families that are there, and some of them are there for months and months,” Lowry said.
The reality star said that Baby B was having trouble with her feedings and didn’t “show signs of hunger.”
“She would just sleep through feedings. She never had any feeding cues and when I tried to feed her, she wouldn’t take a bottle,” Lowry recalled.
“And that was really difficult because I’m looking at him [Baby A], and I’m seeing he’s in the NICU for some of the same reasons, but also he’s taking a bottle, and he’s having no issue with that. And then she was just sleeping all the time,” Lowry said through tears.
Lowry recalled crying “a lot” and being more emotional with “the NICU journey” than dealing with having a C-section.
“I was there for hours,” Lowry said, adding, “And then we have six other kids. When he was discharged from the NICU, we had him at home.”
While she has been able to bond with Baby B, Lowry is concerned that the little girl will have trouble forming a bond with her twin brother.
“They were apart for so long that I feel like they need [to bond] … I get worried that the NICU stay, what if it ruined their bond or put a strain on it,” she said. “I’m trying to remagnetize them to get them back to where they were.”
Lowry revealed that she was expecting twins last October amid rumors that she was pregnant.
She and Scott also secretly welcomed a son named Rio in November 2022, though they didn’t share the news of his arrival until July the following year.
Lowry’s four other births were well-documented on her “Teen Mom” shows before she exited the franchise in 2022.
She first became a mom at the age of 17 in 2010 when she and then-boyfriend Jo Rivera welcomed son Isaac, now 14.
Lowry then married Javi Marroquin in 2012 and they welcomed son Lincoln, 12, before divorcing in 2017 after four years of marriage.
The podcast host, who confirmed her relationship with Scott in 2022, also shares rainbow baby son Lux, 6, and son Creed, 3, with ex-boyfriend Chris Lopez.
Last week, Lowry revealed that she won’t be having any more children as she had her tubes tied after welcoming her twins.
