Nikki DeLoach recently opened up about her parenting experience and raising her second son, Bennett Christopher Goodell, who has congenital heart defects.
The Hallmark actress, in a recent interview, recalled her first days of being a mom.
“It’s like everything that came before and everything that will come after. That marked my life,” she said.
“I always say like, ‘Before Christ, After Christ.’ It really, really was that profound,” DeLoach added.
Nikki DeLoach Got Candid About Her Son’s Chronic Diagnosis
The actress revealed that although her child went through various pediatric ICUs and sleepless nights, medical trauma remained after his discharge.
Talking about her own struggles, she added, “I’ve struggled with PTSD my whole life.”
“What I have been feeling in my body in this last month, it just kept building and building. I finally realized: I had not dealt with that nightmare that was those years of open-heart surgeries,” Our Holiday Story star added.
Notably, when Bennett was born, he was facing an 11 percent chance of survival heading into his initial surgery. The actress reportedly learnt, at five months pregnant, that her son had multiple heart defects and might not survive due to his condition.
Nikki DeLoach Revealed She Is Parenting Through Lingering Trauma
The 47-year-old actress recalled fears of living through Bennett’s health scare.
“You live with that constantly,” she explained.
She revealed that she will “never not have a layer of two eyes like an eagle on him.” The Curious Caterer Mysteries actress recalled checking in on him, whether, “Is he breathing OK? Why did he just grab his heart? Why is he leaning over? He’s out of breath.”
Besides fear of losing her youngest child, the actress revealed she felt guilty towards her eldest son, William Hudson Goodell.
“My second worst fear was somehow missing something with my oldest son,” she admitted.
In the interview, the actress also gave some parenting advice to other parents caught in similar situations.
“You do the best you can. And the good news is, you can always repair. That’s in any relationship. You always have the option for repair,” she added.
Notably, DeLoach is married to former Take 5 boy band member Ryan Goodell. The couple first met in 1999 and got married on September 5, 2009.
