ncurses blank lines (newline) not being displayed on terminal/console window

Question

I'm following a ncurses tutorial from here: https://www.viget.com/articles/game-programming-in-c-with-the-ncurses-library/

It shows how to make a simple bouncing character that goes left to right on the terminal window.

Here is the code, I modified it slightly:

#include <ncurses.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>

#define DELAY 30000

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) 
{
 int x = 0, y = 0;
 int max_y = 0, max_x = 0;
 int next_x = 0;
 int direction = 1;

 initscr();                         // Initialize the window
 noecho();                          // Don't echo any keypresses
 curs_set(TRUE);                    // Don't display a cursor
 getmaxyx(stdscr, max_y, max_x);    // Global var `stdscr` is created by the call to `initscr()`, get screen dimensions.

 while(1) 
 {
    clear();

    mvprintw(y, x, "o");  // Moving object

    // Some basic info being displayed to know how the object is moving.
    mvprintw(1,1, "direction: %d", direction);
    mvprintw(2,1, "next_x: %d", next_x);
    mvprintw(3,1, "x: %d", x);
    mvprintw(4,1, "max_y: %d max_x: %d ", max_y, max_x);
    
    mvprintw(5,1, "\n\n\n");  // <---- Here is the newline, not displayed on terminal.

    refresh();

    usleep(DELAY);

    next_x = x + direction;

    if (next_x >= max_x || next_x < 0) 
    {
        direction*= -1;
    }
    else 
    {
        x+= direction;
    }   
 }

endwin();
}

Based on my code, I should get three newlines (blank lines), but terminal does not display it after I stop the program and scroll up.

These are the results displayed when I scroll up to the terminal after stopping the program:

                                o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 32
 x: 32
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                 o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 33
 x: 33
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                  o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 34
 x: 34
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                   o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 35
 x: 35
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                    o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 36
 x: 36
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                     o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 37
 x: 37
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                      o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 38
 x: 38
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                       o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 39
 x: 39
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162
                                        o
 direction: 1
 next_x: 40
 x: 40
 max_y: 45 max_x: 162

As you can see, absolutely no newline is being displayed, between each iteration. I have tried null characters and it does not work either. For some reason, terminal discards newline or null characters.

How can I make terminal show the three blank new lines when I scroll upwards after stopping the program?

Using FreeBSD 13.1, clang compiler, headless, no desktop environment.

Thanks.