Hi! I’m Dr. Lauren, your perinatal chiropractor at Lake Life Chiropractic. For as long as I can remember, I have loved everything about pregnancy and babies, and that love has grown into my career and, now, my life as a mom. Now, it’s easy to talk about what you’ll do when you’re pregnant, but actually being pregnant? That’s a whole different experience. Somehow, despite being ready to start our family, I still felt like a teen mom when I first saw those two pink lines. So let me bring you through my story…
Picture December 29, 2024: I’m in a Target bathroom, taking a pregnancy test. I shove it into my coat pocket, walk to my car, put it on the dashboard face down, drive to Aldi, and do my grocery shopping before finally looking at it. Two faint lines. My exact words? “Wait, am I old enough for this?” This pregnancy already came as a surprise to me and my husband, but we were both ready and very excited to welcome a baby to our little Buttenhoff family. Naturally, I decided I was going to be the crunchiest pregnant mom you had ever met. Organic everything, protein coming out of my ears, the highest-quality prenatal—you can fill in the rest. That worked beautifully for about a week and a half.
Then the fatigue, nausea, and dry heaving entered the chat. Ladies, if I could look you in the eyes and have you understand one thing in the deepest part of your soul, it’s this: It;s okay to not be what you thought you were going to be in pregnancy all the time. Sometimes we survive and it’s fine. There were weeks when the only thing I could stomach was Culver’s. If I tried cooking at home or dared to eat Crisp & Green in hopes of being healthy, I would yak my little heart out. So I ate Culver’s. Sometimes doing your best looks a whole lot different than you imagined.
Around 12 weeks, the nausea started to fade, but the fatigue was unlike anything I had ever experienced. There would be days I would literally lay on my office floor at lunch and take a nap… I am not a napper, so this was a wild concept to me. I had chosen my midwife, learned we were having a boy—more on that shortly—and received good results from our prenatal screening. Things were looking good in my book.
At 22 weeks, I went in for our anatomy scan, which was the first and going to be my last ultrasound of my pregnancy. Excited and a little nervous, I waltzed into that appointment. The tech put the probe on my stomach, moved it around a few times, and I noticed a confused look on her and Cole’s face. Then she said, “You’re having twins?”
Ladies, alligator tears SPRUNG to my eyes. The postpartum experience I had imagined with one baby immediately left the building in a blink of an eye, and about a hundred fears took its place. Was my peaceful home birth out the window? Could my midwives still keep me as a patient? What was going to happen to my body? Vain? Maybe, but I’m being honest with you. And how the hell were we going to afford two babies? I could be excited about these two little boys and overwhelmed by what their arrival meant, all at the same time. I joke that I had bad maternal instinct because I originally thought that I was having one girl, but I was having two boys.
This is when I learned how much it matters to have people around you who can help when you can barely think straight. My village sprang into action, especially my sister-in-law, Melissa Brettingen, who is also one of Lake Life’s co-owners and married to Dr. Pete. I also refer to her as my birth fairy. When my original midwives decided they did not have enough experience with twins to continue my care, Melissa helped find and vet a midwife who was willing to take me on. Having someone help me sort through options made an enormous difference. And if you’re reading this thinking, “I don’t have that kind of village,” please reach out, sis. You deserve support, too. With a healthy mix of fear and excitement, I kept moving forward with my crunchy pregnancy—now with two passengers.
Throughout all of this, chiropractic care was such an important part of how I cared for myself. I spend my days supporting pregnant women, but being pregnant myself gave me a whole new appreciation for what it feels like to live in a body that is constantly changing. Personally, I have a hard time imagining my pregnancy without that care. Physically, I felt good and was able to keep adjusting patients, working out, sleeping, and moving with relative ease right up until birth. Carrying twins was a lot, and having that support for my comfort mattered to me. My appointments also gave me space to pause, check in with my body, and feel cared for while so much was changing around me. When I talk about wanting an adaptable nervous system, that’s the experience I’m trying to describe: being able to meet a stressful moment, feel what I’m feeling, and find my way toward the next decision. Chiropractic care was part of my support system, alongside movement, rest, prayer, and the people who helped me feel safe. I still cried, worried, and had moments when I absolutely did not feel calm. You’ll see plenty of those coming.
Overall, I was feeling great, and the babies were growing. My biggest daily struggle was eating enough. My midwife wanted me to eat so much, and when two babies are taking up that much space, your stomach feels practically nonexistent. I would sit at the dinner table and shed a single—or several—tears trying to finish my food. Then, around 35 weeks, a nonstress test and ultrasound raised a red flag about Baby A’s blood flow from the placenta. We needed closer monitoring and another ultrasound the following week. This tested my faith, people. Suddenly, I was hearing opinions from every direction, and I was struggling to figure out what to do and decifer who I should trust and ulitamry follow. I wanted to protect the birth I had imagined, but I also wanted to understand what my baby needed. At the next appointment, Cole, Melissa, and I met with maternal-fetal medicine and learned that the blood flow had worsened. The recommendation was immediate induction. The doctor sat with us for well over an hour, explaining what he was seeing and answering our questions. I left in tears—a theme?—and drove home with Melissa while we talked everything through with Cole on the phone.
Ultimately, I decided to go to The Mother Baby Center in Minneapolis to get this process started. Then, because apparently I still had one more decision in me, I changed my mind and wanted to go to Ridgeview because it felt more familiar as a native Waconia girl, but they weren’t able to take me. I was overwhelmed. I hadn’t wanted a hospital birth, and I was afraid my hopes for a natural, vaginal, physiological birth would be dismissed the moment I walked through the doors. Cole finally said, “Let’s just plan to go in the morning.” That night, we went to Lakewinds for snacks, I packed a hospital bag with absolutely no idea what belonged in it because I had planned on having these babies in my bedroom, and then I lay in bed and cried some more. The next morning, fueled by Smith Coffee, we drove to the hospital. I remember saying, “This feels weird. Like I’m about to get the shit kicked out of me, but it’s so calm.” We laughed, said a prayer, and walked through the doors around 11 a.m.
I then proceeded to meet an angel on earth, Katie, my nurse. She was the most kind and empathetic person I truly have ever met in my life. By noon, we were in our room, and Melissa, who also was my doula (true birth fairy people) arrived shortly after. I had to go in unassigned because I had been working with a independent homebirth midwife, so it was up to the OB Gods who I would get as a doctor. Luckily, I also got the best doctor I could have ever imagined. Dr. Tanner who had two sets of twins herself. In a situation where I felt that God was giving me the middle finger, actually started to seem like he was on my side.
Katie or Dr. Tanner never made me feel ridiculous for wanting a home birth, and met us with kindness and empathy that this was not the birth I imagined. That mattered more than I can explain. I’ve heard the phrase “failed home birth,” and I have feelings about that. Getting more support when you or your baby needs it deserves respect. I was grieving the birth I had pictured while also feeling grateful for the people helping us through the birth we were actually having.
I was about one centimeter dilated when we started the induction with a Cook balloon. They let me stay in my own clothes, and as the day went on, I discovered that some of the hospital rules I had assumed were universal weren’t part of my experience at all. My team supported movement, different labor positions, and eating when appropriate. They even offered acupuncture, acupressure, and massage services. There were ordinary, comfortable moments tucked into a day I had been so afraid of. Dr. Tanner recommended Pitocin to build on the contractions I was already having, but Baby A started having heart rate decelerations during contractions. The team tried IV fluids and helped me move into different positions and using a rebozo. We turned off the Pitocin when he wasn’t tolerating it. I also tried acupuncture, hoping labor would pick up, but things continued to move slowly. When the balloon came out, I was about three centimeters dilated. Eventually, my waters were broken, which brought stronger contractions, but Baby A’s heart rate remained a concern. An internal monitor confirmed that the drops were real.
Around 3 a.m., his heart rate was dipping into the 70s, and the conversations about a cesarean became more serious. Emotions were high. They were going to try, watch closely, and respond to what happened. By around 4 a.m., Baby A’s heart rate was dropping more frequently, including outside contractions, and a c section was recommended. Dr. Tanner walked us through everything with kindness, and I asked for a moment to talk before we moved forward. Then, suddenly, we were heading to the operating room, and what felt like 20 minutes later, our boys were here. Wild. Surreal. Absolutely nothing like the birth I had rehearsed in my head.
I’ll be honest: I was wildly unprepared for this part. I had been so confident I would have a vaginal home birth that I literally skipped the section of my birth class about interventions and cesareans. Learn from me on that one, ladies.
So in Post-Op, they still do the fundal massage and check for clots, which surprised me and I did end up loosing a lot of blood. Cole, my husband, went with the twins and my sister in law stayed with me. I can’t stress this enough, mom you are important too. Make sure you have someone to take care of you and be with your baby. I wanted someone with the twins at all times, but I also didn’t want to be alone. And thank god she was there because I was puking, and bleeding and literally had to get a fundal sweep because they couldn’t figure out why I was losing so much blood. Honestly, I was out of it so I literally have very vague recollection of this, but I am told it was intense and a little scary.
This experience also changed what I want moms to hear from me as their chiropractor. I want you to feel comfortable in your body, informed about your options, and supported when something surprises you. Chiropractic care was a meaningful part of my pregnancy because I valued how I felt physically and the opportunity to keep checking in with myself through all those changes. For me, adaptability meant crying over a changed plan and still being able to take the next step with support without shutting down. It meant accepting help, asking questions, and giving myself room to feel disappointed and grateful at the same time. That’s a big part of why we created this guide at Lake Life. Pregnancy comes with so much you don’t know until you’re living it, and you deserve a place to learn, ask questions, and feel cared for along the way. From one mom to another: eat the Culver’s if that’s what you can stomach, build your village, and let yourself be supported. You don’t have to have every part of this figured out to be an incredible mom and also have an incredible experience.
Moms, let’s have a baby… or babies ;)
