Orlando firefighters

reunite with Nicholas, the newborn they saved in August after he suddenly stopped breathing.

It was a happy reunion Thursday morning when Monica Street and her infant son returned to the Orlando Fire Department station where the baby was brought back to life.

Nicholas Craig suddenly stopped breathing about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 30. Street tried calling 911, but as she watched her child turn blue, she decided it would take too long for an ambulance to arrive.

Instead, she ran barefoot down 18 floors of the 55 West high-rise apartments — the elevator was too slow — and rushed across the street to bang on the back door of Orlando Fire Station 1 at 78 W. Central Blvd. She breathed into his mouth, attempting CPR the whole way.

“You breathing for him, that was his saving grace,” firefighter Phillip Cada told Street. “You gave us a better chance at saving him.”

The firefighters took little Nicholas — just 26 days old at the time — to the vehicle bay where ambulances held the medical equipment needed and placed him on the ground to continue resuscitation efforts.

They worked. The baby started breathing on his own and developed a pulse again. Then firefighters took mother and child to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, where he stayed for two weeks, she said.

On Thursday, Street, 25, came back to Station 1 to show off Nicholas to the firefighters who saved his life. The tall, brawny men cooed as they held the tiny baby.

“It’s been 17 years since I’ve done this,” said Lt. Tim Capps, the father of a teenager.

Nicholas suffered from a possible bacterial infection or complications from reflux, Street said doctors told her. He was released from the hospital this week, and Street said he’s back to being a “normal baby.”

Street, who has three other children, said she was grateful for the firefighters’ efforts.

“That was the worst day of my life,” Street said. “He is my last baby. I didn’t want to have him and then have him leave.”