Before becoming a mompreneur, I had a successful career as a journalist and television producer living my dream. But all during this time I had been longing to become a mother. After nearly a decade, I was blessed by becoming pregnant with my first baby.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you view it… I developed pre-eclampsia and had an emergency C-section two months early. My daughter, Mimi, was born weighing only 3lbs and had to be placed in an incubator in the NICU until she was able to feed, breathe and maintain her own temperature on her own. It was a humbling and difficult time for me. I felt so disconnected from my own newborn. My mom came to be stay with me to help and together, we would drive back and forth from home to feed and cuddle her every day. I had the baby blues, feeling almost robbed of the ideal birth experience. But as a family, we supported one another and slowly pulled through. My girl, Mimi grew healthily, and after a month she had grown enough to come home.
When she came home at 4 lbs, she had so much gas and colic that I didn’t know how to handle her continued crying at all hours, especially at night. I tried everything to help her, drops, teas, and belly rubs. Nothing helped. I felt tired, always irritated and just plain exhausted. Then a friend, bless her heart, gave me a belly band that tied with strings, saying it would help and that they have been using it as a method of soothing for years in their family.
This one act of gifting changed everything for me. The band worked and Mimi seemed soothed and calmed when I used it. It comforted for her (and me) and eventually, I was able to better care for her. I finally began feeling that connection that I so longed for when she was far away from me in the NICU.I felt like I could possibly, maybe be that ideal mama that I had pictured in my head for all those years. That belly band really turned things around for me and my little family.
After being a mom a few years and having a second child, I felt like I wanted to get back to work and start something new. I had remembered how much that band had helped me and I thought about designing a better, more beautiful belly band that could help calm and soothe other fussy, colicky, gassy babies.
When I’d ask people about using a band, so many people either didn’t hear about it or told me that people don’t use this anymore and just give babies medicines or drops. But I knew that there had to be people like me who wanted a more natural way to soothe their babies. So I spent months researching, designing, and testing it on my friends’ babies and received great responses. That’s how my entrepreneurial journey began.
Since then, the MEMEENO belly band, our flagship product, has helped soothe tens of thousands of babies. Today, I call myself the Chief Soothing Officer of MEMEENO. I’m passionate about paying it forward and doing what I can to help parents care, comfort and connect with their babies in the most natural way.
The brand name MEMEENO is the combination of my children’s nick names.
Mimi + Ameeno = MEMEENO
I designed and patented a self-heating baby belly band that helps to ease gas and colic in infants in a natural, external way. ‘With a little hug & a lot of warmth’, the band has helped thousands of parents soothe and calm their fussy, gassy, colicky babies.
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