Well here I am Mommi followers – prenatal protein shake in hand (or next to me on my desk) while writing about my exciting news. Although I’ve already come out with it on Facebook which makes everything official, I haven’t told any of you yet that I’m pregnant! It happened earlier than we had planned, but Seth and I are so thrilled to welcome Baby #2 into the world. Jordyn will be 20 months old when he makes our family a “party of 4” and she just started pointing to my belly and saying “ba-by” yesterday! So if she is going to tell everyone then naturally I am excited to spread the news as well:).
Here is why I’m even more excited about this pregnancy than EVER:
I wasn’t able to take Mommi 3-in-1 for my entire pregnancy with JoJo (my cute daughter Jordyn’s nickname). The idea for a prenatal protein shake came when I was 3 months pregnant with JoJo and sicker than I had ever been in my life! I couldn’t stand taking horse pill prenatals and even the smell of meat made me want to hurl. I searched for a protein safe pregnancy powder with no luck – they were all stamped with an ugly warning label that usually said “Do not take while pregnant or nursing” – BOO. I had also heard that liquid vitamins didn’t make you as sick, but I couldn’t find prenatals or DHA that fit the criteria. So I went to the drawing board and created Mommi 3-in-1; a protein shake that includes a complete prenatal and DHA in a chocolate and vanilla flavor. I was thrilled, but we went through so many safety tests to ensure the best quality that JoJo was 2 months old before it was finished:(. I still believed strongly in it’s power to help women and improve pregnancy nutrition, but I just wasn’t able to put it to the test during my pregnancy that inspired the idea.
Then… this happened. One morning my husband miraculously had the day off work (this usually never happens to a US Marine:). JoJo was napping and I was upstairs on a conference call when he mysteriously disappeared for about 30 minutes. He came back mid-conference call waving around an electronic pregnancy test and I just rolled my eyes at him and laughed. I was not pregnant. I knew my own body and it wasn’t happening – I felt completely normal and nothing like the way I felt with Jordyn (nauseous from the get-go, sensitive to touch and irritable to boot). For the last week Seth kept telling me he knew I was pregnant because my breath smelled different (to this day he won’t admit whether “different” meant bad or not – good husband:), but I was convinced he was crazy. My call finished and to make him get off my case I thought the least I could do was take the test and just leave it in the bathroom and resume my work day. After all, I knew it would say “not pregnant” so I wasn’t worried about sticking around for the results. I jumped on another conference call and continued on with my day. 10 minutes later Seth came in with the little white stick and shoved it in my face – it read “pregnant”. I dropped the phone in disbelief and watched him dance around in circles. He grabbed my hands, lifted me out of my chair and started dancing with me and laughing. I couldn’t believe it! We were having another baby – and I didn’t even have the motherly instinct to tell me it was true! But I was really excited nonetheless. I just couldn’t believe it.
Shake n’ Bake, Baby! After the initial shock and celebrating were over I realized something exciting – I was already taking a Mommi 3-in-1 shake every day as part of my routine, and I could now go through my entire pregnancy drinking my own product to really put it to the test!! This may not seem as thrilling to some of you reading this as it was to me:). I couldn’t wait to try new recipes, see if it actually helped with my nausea and energy, and the most importantly in my eyes – helped me not gain the 75 pounds I gained while pregnant with JoJo (when Zofran didn’t work, mashed potatoes with lots of butter and a side of mac n’ cheese always did – like 3 times a day).
So now what???? I’m now 23 weeks pregnant and am so excited to report that this pregnancy has felt SO much better than the last in every way! I’m feeling great most days and I haven’t had to swallow one horse pill. I’ve created some interesting protein shake recipes (some of which were pretty bad and some that I LOVE), and I have been able to keep up a decent level of physical activity that has helped me feel healthier and maintain a good weight this time around. And, most importantly to me, as far as Mommi is concerned, I can now say from personal experience that this product does what I wanted it to do! It is improving prenatal nutrition – at least for me, and I hope for you. That was the goal after all.
Follow along! For the rest of my pregnancy I am going to share the delicious recipes and prenatal nutrition tips that I have learned in this almost 2-year journey since starting Mommi – and I have learned so much! I have also met countless women and mommy entrepreneurs that have inspired me so much by creating products to help other women during pregnancy too and I have tried all of them that I can get my hands on. I am going to share them with you each week and even do giveaways for some of my favorites so you can enjoy them too! You can check back into the Mommi Blog for the latest giveaways, or on our social networks for the info (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter). We will also be putting out a weekly newsletter highlighting all the cool new pregnancy finds which you can join by clicking on THIS LINK. I hope you will have fun following along! After all, isn’t pregnancy more fun with friends? :). Personal note – this is a selfish endeavor for me in a way because Seth is deploying a few months before Jr. will be born and I’d rather share my experience with all of you than no one at all!
Thanks again for following and trying Mommi 3-in-1, and supporting everything we have built over the last few years. I am honored to know all of you even if it’s virtually! Connect with me through e-mail at [email protected] or on Twitter @erinschurtz – I want to hear your stories too – we can all inspire each other!