Jamie Otis suffered multiple devastating miscarriages before she became pregnant with her son, Hendrix, who was born last month.
“I can’t even describe how good it feels to be able to hold him in my arms,” Otis, 34, told TODAY Parents. "I terrified I was going to lose him.”
Otis, who also has a 2-year-old daughter named Grace with her husband, Doug Hehner, acknowledges that she “held back” on discussing her rainbow pregnancy anxiety with her Instagram followers.
“I didn’t want to speak too much about that on social media because I knew I was so fortunate to be pregnant,” the “Married at First Sight” alum explained. “I didn’t want to whine and complain ‘I’m so scared I’m going to lose him’ in front of an audience of women begging to be pregnant. I know what that's like. I was there for 18 months. It was negative test after negative test."
Now that Hendrix is here, Otis still finds herself worrying. She knows it comes with the territory after losing two back-to-back pregnancies in 2018 and 2019. Otis and Hehner, 38, also lost their son, Johnathan Edward, in 2016 when Otis was four months pregnant.
“If (Hendrix) isn’t crying or waking up fast enough, I’m like, ‘Is he OK?’ But I'm getting better,” she revealed. “I just like having him in my arms. It’s a feeling of comfort when I can hear him breathing and making his baby sounds on me.”
Hendrix is happy to be snuggled.
“He's so calm and happy, knock on wood,” Otis quipped. The irony is that she's partnered with Align Probiotic and is promoting its colic relief supplement for babies.
“I know eventually he’s going to be fussy and I’d much rather give him a probiotic than some sort of medication,” Otis said. “It boosts the good bacteria in your belly.”
Otis noted that Hendrix's mellow demeanor means she gets to spend more time playing with Grace.
"I was nervous about how she'd react to him getting so much attention," Otis told TODAY Parents. "But things are going really well."
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