Rachel Bloom on Daughter's Birth, Losing Pal Adam Schlesinger to Coronavirus: It Was 'Intense'

The birth of a baby is usually a time filled primarily with happy tears. But as ecstatic as Rachel Bloom was to welcome her first child in March, her experience was "atypical" amid the coronavirus pandemic and consequent death of her friend Adam Schlesinger.

"It's hard because I want to talk about the joy of, obviously, having a child, but those two events are so inextricably linked in my mind and it seems like forever ago even though it's three months ago," the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star, 33, told Entertainment Tonight.

Bloom also shared that the Fountains of Wayne musician — who was 52 at the time of his death, which occurred after he tested positive for COVID-19 — died "a day or two" after her baby girl came home from the hospital.

Amy Sussman/Getty Rachel Bloom (R) and Adam Schlesinger

The "incredibly intense time" was made even more difficult by the fact that Bloom and husband Dan Gregor's then-newborn had to spend days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) following her birth, due to a fluid buildup in her lungs that gave her "trouble breathing."

"It's really scary to see your little baby covered in tubes and IVs," the new mother told ET. "But she was strong and headstrong, even in the NICU she kept knocking out her nose tubs and she kept knocking out her IVs. She was really, really strong."

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Walter McBride/Getty Images Rachel Bloom (R) and Adam Schlesinger

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Bloom told the outlet that she and Gregor couldn't even be in the NICU at the same time to see their daughter, given the rapid spread and seriousness of the virus in New York City.

"Everyone says, 'Oh you know, baby blues, you're crying a lot,' and it's like, yeah, I was crying a lot," said the Trolls World Tour voice actress. "I don't know if that was baby blues or grief, it's just a very, very atypical intense experience with the highest highs and like the lowest lows."

But now, "She's great," added Bloom. "We just had our big three-month checkup. She's growing. She's in the 70th percentile for height, which my husband and I are very short people, so we're hoping maybe she'll be tall."

Bloom announced the birth of her daughter on April 1, sharing that the family was "now home safe" following an "emotionally intense week" that included the baby's NICU stay.

"I am just so grateful to all of our medical workers," she wrote in addition. "From those in our NICUS to those directly helping COVID patients like Adam, they are sacrificing so much to fight on the front lines of this war."

Bloom also tweeted about Schlesinger the same day, writing, "I have so much to say about Adam Schlesinger that I am at a complete loss for words. He is irreplaceable."

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