CoVID brought a Bundle of Joy and a Second Wind!

The Corona Virus has been a thorn in my side. I am sure it has affected you too! While I may have lost my job and my uncle, I can say that my family unit has grown even closer and stronger. We had o pool our resources and figure out how to make life work when our circumstances seemed to be shifting every day. My temporary lay-off seemed like a much needed holiday, at first. I was happy because it seemed that the world was on pause for once, and I would be able to catch up - start and finish, all the projects I have wanted to do for years. I got to have my son home with me, and he began to really talk, in full sentences and all! My husband and I had been trying for over a year to have another baby. I wanted to explore the IVF route again, but my husband was dead against the whole idea, not to mention our money was T-I-G-H-T! Anyway, we conceived 3 or 4 days after my lay-off, so - HOORAY!

With all the good that was happening, I knew we were blessed. Nonetheless, I admittedly was quite unsettled, even worried. Just a few short months before, my husband was laid off. He thankfully had found a new job but only part-time, and for a start-up. Being a late bloomer to love, marriage, and kids, I was happy to be pregnant with our second. However, I was also fearful of not having enough income and time loss. My body, my time, would no longer be mine for a good while. I was just about to take my practice online. Now, everyone was taking their medical practices online. With my kiddo at home becoming an even more challenging and onerous 2-year old, I felt like the next 9 months would fly by, and I would have nothing to show for it. I always wanted to model to my kiddos that you can have it all with balance. I tried to balance, but what was there to balance if I was no longer working?
Time passed, and finally, it dawned on me... why am I not doing more to share my story with the world. I realized as a naturopathic doctor that I had supported many others deal with similar experiences. I sat down and wrote out all of my worries, I wrote all of what I knew about solving these frustrations, and I worked on implementing my new goals. One of many solutions.... was Better Belly Butter.

I had a formula that worked for me during my first pregnancy to prevent stretch marks. Now it was time to uncover why it worked. I put on my investigative cap and began researching. It is so funny how, as a doctor, we often take our knowledge for granted and assume that the rest of the world already knows what we know. After all, there is Dr. Google. I am only kidding, Dr. Google is quite intelligent, but he tells true and false information and can't apply it to the person.

Better Belly butter began as a very simplistic recipe in the kitchen of our home. And while it worked for me, I wanted to make sure that there was research to support why it worked. I wanted to know why so many creams only moisturized some skin but not all. I wanted to learn more about the skin changes that occurred during pregnancy. I wanted to build a moisturizing blend for stretch marks that would be safe to use throughout one's entire pregnancy, not just at the end when the skin damage has already been done. Could it be possible to make a natural body butter that could stand up next to chemical peels and lasers? So began my quest - fully pumped and ready to try on a new job description. By the time my temporary lay-off resulted in a permanent lay-off, my passion for discovering the answers to these questions had revived me with a second wind in my career.  I had developed the best stretch mark cream for pregnant women of color.