Miss Nikki Baby & Rainbow Baby Anxiety

I spent the entirety of my second pregnancy locked in the downstairs half-bath, doom-scrolling baby forums until my legs fell asleep and my phone battery hit two percent. I was convinced every tiny twinge was a catastrophe, and I was looking for validation from strangers on the internet who named their accounts things like 'MamaBear99'. Do not do this. Seriously, I'm saving you so much time right now. You know who figured this out way faster than I did? Nikki Mudarris.

If you keep up with pop culture or reality TV, you probably know the 34-year-old entrepreneur better as Miss Nikki. Her baby news has been everywhere lately. She and basketball player LiAngelo Ball recently expanded their family in the summer of 2024. Their first little boy, LaVelo, showed up the year before. But it’s her second pregnancy that made me sit up and pay attention while I was scraping dried oatmeal off my kitchen counter. That second kid was a 'rainbow'—a pregnancy following a miscarriage.

The Anxiety of the Rainbow

Losing a pregnancy is this horrible, silent club nobody wants a membership to. My grandma always used to say that women’s bodies just 'know what to do,' but honestly, sometimes they just don't, and it’s heartbreaking. My doctor casually mentioned once that early loss happens in roughly 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies. I think she meant it to be comforting, like 'hey, you aren't alone,' but hearing stats like that when you’re already terrified just makes you feel like you're playing a completely rigged game at a cheap casino.

When you finally do get that positive test again, you're supposed to be thrilled. And you're! But the joy is strapped directly to a massive boulder of anxiety. Nikki called her second pregnancy her 'rainbow after the storm,' which is a beautiful way to put it, but navigating that storm on a daily basis is rough. You're constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. You overanalyze every symptom. If you've morning sickness, you're miserable. If you wake up one day and the nausea is gone, you immediately panic. There's no winning.

Tuning Out the Noise

This is where the whole digital boundaries thing comes in. During her first go-round, Nikki publicly stated she was avoiding internet comments entirely to protect her peace. She admitted she was sensitive and hormonal and just point-blank refused to stress herself out. Smart girl. I could rant about this specific topic for three straight paragraphs, honestly.

We're the first generation of mothers who are constantly subjected to the unfiltered, unsolicited opinions of literally everyone on Earth. It’s exhausting. If you post a picture of your kid's car seat, four hundred people will jump into your comments to tell you you're doing it wrong and your baby is in danger. If you admit you formula feed, someone is going to send you a direct message about toxins. During my worst anxiety spirals, I found an Instagram reel about a mom making homemade organic playdough out of chia seeds and alkaline water, and I literally cried on my kitchen floor because I had just let my toddler eat a stale french fry off the floorboard of my minivan.

My pediatrician sort of hinted that staring at my phone and getting stressed out was probably jacking up my cortisol levels, which isn't great for a developing fetus. I eventually had to pull the plug by aggressively curating my feed and blocking any account that made me feel like garbage without a second thought. I wish I had instituted a strict digital detox like that at Miss Nikki's baby age and stage of life, instead of waiting until I was running on fumes.

Blanket Real Talk

During those anxious late-night feeding sessions when you can't sleep, you're going to end up buying things you don't actually need because they look pretty on your screen. I'll just be real with you—the Colorful Universe Bamboo Baby Blanket is totally fine. It’s undeniably soft, and the organic bamboo and cotton blend is supposedly great for temperature regulation, which is nice if you live somewhere hot like I do. But my middle child completely ignored it in favor of a scratchy, ten-year-old promotional towel my husband got for free at a hardware store. Kids are weird. The universe pattern is cute, and it does make a great breathable stroller cover, but don't expect it to magically make a fussy toddler sleep through the night. It's a blanket, not a wizard.

The Delivery Room Support Problem

Let’s talk about getting the kid out. Nikki was super honest about her first birth being long, hard, and incredibly challenging. She gave a ton of credit to LiAngelo for supporting her the entire time. Bless his heart, my husband tried. He really did. But during my oldest's birth, he brought a giant bag of teriyaki beef jerky into the delivery room and chewed it loudly while I was having back labor. I almost filed for divorce right there between contractions.

Having a dedicated support person who actually knows what they're doing supposedly shortens labor and reduces the need for pain meds, at least according to whatever fuzzy pamphlets they handed me at the hospital tour. Make your partner take a class, teach them how to do counter-pressure massage, and have them pack a bag with a few actual necessities:

A ten-foot phone charging cable
Deodorant, because nervous sweating is a very real thing
Snacks that do NOT smell like smoked meat

If you're currently in the nesting phase and trying to figure out what you actually need for the hospital bag, take a look at Kianao's baby blankets collection to find some soft layers that smell like home instead of hospital bleach.

Dogs and Strollers

Another thing about this whole Hollywood relationship story that cracked me up is how they originally met walking their dogs at a canyon in LA. They have a whole pack of huge dogs. Navigating life with a newborn and multiple dogs is a literal circus, and nobody warns you about the logistics. I've a retriever mix who thinks she’s a lap dog and an ancient terrier who barks at the wind.

When my first was born, taking a simple walk required military precision. You have a leash in one hand, a heavy stroller in the other, and you're just praying a squirrel doesn't run across your path. I read somewhere you're supposed to bring a blanket home from the hospital for the dogs to sniff before the baby arrives. I totally forgot to do that. My oldest turned out fine, though the terrier still side-eyes him when he drops food from the high chair.

Clothes That Don't Fall Apart

If you're going to be hauling an infant and a leash around the neighborhood, you need clothes that don't blow out at the slightest movement. This is where I've to rave about the Sleeveless Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit. This thing is an absolute workhorse in our house. It has just enough elastane in it so it seriously stretches over that giant newborn head without causing a total meltdown.

The organic cotton is ridiculously durable. I’ve washed ours probably fifty times in harsh well water and it hasn't lost its shape or gotten weirdly stiff. At around twenty bucks, it saves you so much cash in the long run because you aren't constantly replacing cheap fast-fashion onesies that shrink to doll-size after one cycle in the dryer. I bought it in three colors and basically rotated them all summer.

Teething Survival Tactics

And since we're talking about things that really save your sanity, let me tell you about the Baby Panda Teether. My youngest is currently cutting his molars and he has turned into a feral little badger. Yesterday, he managed to dig my metal car keys out of my purse and tried to chew on them. I panicked and swapped the keys out for this little silicone panda I had in the diaper bag.

It's flat enough that his chubby little hands can seriously hold it without dropping it every five seconds, and the textured bits seem to hit the exact spot on his gums that’s bothering him. You can throw it in the fridge to cool it down, which my grandma swears by for soreness, and honestly, she's right about that one. Plus, it's dishwasher safe. Let me tell you a secret: if I can't put a baby item in the top rack of the dishwasher, I don't want it in my house. Period. I don't have time to be boiling things on the stove like a pioneer woman.

Look, whether you're navigating the heavy anxiety of a pregnancy after a loss, trying to keep your dogs from eating baby socks, or just trying to survive until naptime, you've to find what works for your specific family and block out the rest of the noise. You just need to unfollow the perfect aesthetic accounts, set boundaries with your phone, and give yourself a little bit of grace all at one time instead of letting the internet make you feel inadequate while you're literally building a human being.

If you're ready to upgrade your kid's wardrobe with clothes that genuinely last through the mess, go check out Kianao's full organic baby clothes lineup before you buy another multipack of thin, scratchy shirts.

Questions I Get Asked About Surviving Pregnancy Anxiety

How do you seriously do a digital detox when you're pregnant?

I'll be real with you, cold turkey doesn't work. I tried deleting Instagram and just ended up downloading it again at 3 AM because I couldn't sleep. What honestly worked for me was aggressively muting accounts. If a post made my chest feel tight—even if it was from a well-meaning friend—I muted it. I only allowed myself to look at dog rescue videos and baking tutorials for the last two months of my pregnancy.

Are rainbow pregnancies always this stressful?

From my experience and talking to other moms, yeah, mostly. You never really lose that little voice in the back of your head going "what if." But it does get easier as you hit certain milestones. Once I could feel the baby kicking regularly, my anxiety dialed back from a ten to maybe a solid six. Just don't let anyone guilt you into acting blindly joyful if you're honestly terrified. Both feelings can exist in the same room.

How do you keep dogs from going crazy when the newborn cries?

You don't. The dogs are going to lose their minds for the first week. We had a lot of success with giving our dogs high-value treats every single time the baby started wailing. Eventually, they associated the horrible noise with getting snacks. It's basically bribery, but I don't care because it worked to keep the peace in my living room.

What do I genuinely need to pack in the hospital bag for my partner?

Don't let them pack anything crunchy or pungent. Trust me on this. Pack them a long phone charger, a sweatshirt because maternity wards are kept at meat-locker temperatures, and maybe a basic list of people to text when the baby is born so you don't have to manage communications while you're recovering.

Is organic cotton really worth the extra money?

When I had my first kid, I thought organic cotton was just a marketing gimmick to separate tired parents from their money. But then my oldest got terrible eczema, and the cheap synthetic clothes made it so much worse. The organic stuff really breathes and doesn't trap sweat against their skin. Plus, it holds up way better in the wash. I buy fewer pieces now, but I buy better quality, and it ends up costing about the same over time.