A Weekend to Remember

The weekend of April 9, 2022, is one that Dane and I will surely never forget! That weekend, not only did the Knox have its first guest in more than 50 years, but we also welcomed our little Duncan into the world! As you can imagine, leading up to that weekend was… pretty stressful, to say the least.

The Baby Flips

In order to tell this story properly, we have to back up a few weeks to when I was 38 weeks pregnant. On March 14, I went in for my weekly doctor’s visit and found out that the baby had done some gymnastics and turned breech (head up). I gave birth to our first son all naturally, which I hoped to do again, but the doctor wanted to schedule me for a C-section the following week. That was definitely not what I had been expecting. All I wanted was a healthy baby, but if I could still give birth all naturally, that would be ideal.

It was emotionally overwhelming to be so close to his due date and have him be breech, so my stress level was high. After I had time to process the news, I decided to do everything I could to turn the baby on my own. And it’s at this point I have to give a couple HUGE shoutouts.

First, Angie Reidner at Catching Joy Midwifery. Angie is a local midwife who does home births. Even though I was planning for a hospital delivery, Angie helped support and guide me through those crazy weeks. She had me come see her right away, and started by giving me a big hug. That hug meant more than she will ever know; my mom lives six hours away, and a hug is exactly what I needed at that moment. Angie then showed me some spinning babies maneuvers and also referred me to a doctor who performs breech deliveries in the Quad Cities (about an hour away, for those not from the area).

And secondly, I have to shout out Dr. Schultz at Farrell Chiropractic. She saw me several times a week to help flip little Duncan. (Not that anyone asked for this information, but if you ever have a breech baby, there is what’s called the “Webster’s Technique” that a trained chiropractor can perform that helps give the baby space to flip.)

Thanks to the amazing help from Dr. Schultz and Angie, I went to the doctor again at 39 weeks, and found out the baby had flipped back! We were so excited and relieved. Now all we had to do was wait for him to arrive, or so I thought…

Hotel Work Continues

So, with all of that going on, Dane is still working frantically at the hotel to try and get everything done before the first guests arrive on April 9! (Just to make it clear, the baby was due on March 29, and the first guest on April 9 – yep, you counted right, that’s just 10 days apart.)

At this point, both Dane and I were each carrying our own growing load of stress, me that the baby would stay head down and arrive naturally, and Dane about getting everything done before I went into labor. On top of working his regular job, Dane was at the hotel working every evening until late, AND every Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Being so pregnant, I wasn’t up for doing all of those stairs and hard work, so I stayed home and got the house ready and bags packed.

Fortunately someone else from the community volunteered to help at the hotel. We are so grateful for her help! She kind of arrived on the scene out of nowhere, as if sent by God in our time of need. Her daily help with cleaning and painting freed up Dane to focus on putting out last minute fires (like re-doing a plumbing drain behind finished wainscoting…) and other needed to-dos.

More Spinning Babies

My due date came and went.

I started to get the feeling that our sweet little Duncan had decided to give us another curve ball! I just knew that he had flipped again. However, at my next appointment, the doctor wasn’t able to tell and the ultrasound wasn’t available during the appointment. So I followed my mama gut and decided to switch my care, at 41 weeks! I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to have a natural birth, so I called over to the Quad Cities, and the doctor saw me the very next day. And I was right. Duncan was breech, again!

I was back on the regiment of spinning babies and chiropractor appointments (and still teaching). Now keep in mind, while all of this is going on, Dane is still going to the hotel almost every night by himself to try and get the room ready! And after talking to my doctor, we decided to induce on April 12, breech or not, unless the baby arrived sooner. We also scheduled an ultrasound for April 9, just to see if Duncan would flip on his own again. Dr. Schultz was amazing and squeezed me in that Saturday morning, and then I headed for my ultrasound.

The First Guests

Let me repeat: April 9. That was also the day our first guests were coming. The night before, Dane had been at the hotel until 5 a.m. to get as much done as he could and then was up again at 8 a.m. to get back to work. While I headed to my ultrasound, Dane, along with several amazing family and friends, were all at the hotel scurrying to get all the final details together. And let me tell you, there were a lot of final details. Clean the stairwell, install the handrail, hang the bathroom chandelier, move all the furniture in the room, make the bed, set out the towels, install door handles, and deep clean everything.

In my head, I assumed that I would be back later that afternoon to help Dane finalize the room. (Let’s be real; I wanted to make sure he did it right. Haha) But the ultrasound took longer than I had planned, and when they finally did it, Duncan had flipped head down! Although it does happen, a baby flipping back and forth this much is pretty uncommon, from what I’ve been told. So, in that moment, I was thankful and excited.

Then the doctor came in and told me that I had to stay to be induced. She didn’t want to give him a chance to flip again, which makes sense, but was also very overwhelming given everything going on in that moment.

After I wiped away the tears (from joy and stress), I gave Dane a call to share the news. As I explained it was baby time, I could hear power tools in the background… (Now I can look back and laugh, but at that moment it was very disconcerting.) Nonetheless, Dane assured me they were almost done.

Remember, I had thought that I would be going home that day, so I didn’t bring my hospital bag to the ultrasound. I begged to go home to shower and grab my bag, and oh yeah, get Dane too! Thankfully my doctor didn’t mind and I headed back to Princeton to get ready.

Dane finished at the hotel, and we both grabbed our bags and jumped back in the car. As we were heading back to the hospital, Dane was literally on the phone with the guest to let them know how to get in the building and the room. Thankfully they were wonderful and totally understood the crazy timing of everything!

Baby Time

After getting settled in at the hospital, they started me on pitocin that night, but then shut it off at 11 p.m. so that I could sleep. The next morning, April 10, they restarted the pitocin at 5 a.m. By 7 a.m. I was in active labor, and at 11:47 a.m., Duncan arrived! It was amazing to be able to have him all naturally despite him being breech, twice!

I would like to point out that while I was laboring, with no pain meds, Dane literally fell asleep on the couch! Haha. Thankfully, we’re both able to look back and laugh at the entire situation, but it was definitely crazy in those moments!

We left the hospital the next day, as did the hotel guests. We sent them instructions for how to leave, and that was that. We are so grateful to have had such gracious and understanding first guests!

Thank You

We would not have been able to pull off having that room ready in time if it weren’t for our AMAZING family and friends that showed up to help! I even called a friend while I was at the hospital waiting to get the ultrasound; she dropped everything to help make the bed and add some decor!

It’s the moments like those that Dane and I are reminded of how amazing this community is, that we aren’t alone and can always ask for help. Saying “thank you” will never be able to cover how truly grateful we are! And to everyone reading this post, thank you for taking the time, and we hope you enjoyed the crazy story!