>>> b = re.compile('(\n+)?=item', re.IGNORECASE)
>>> c = 'hello how are you \n\nITeM 84.2 rofl yo'
>>> b.match(c)
>>> 


Correction:

>>> b = re.compile('(\n+)(?=item)', re.IGNORECASE)
>>> print b.split(c)
['hello how are you ', '\n\n', 'ITeM 84.2 rofl yo']