Our Birth Story: Fallon Rory Sinnard
Born: Thursday May 2, 2019 11:39am 7lb11oz 21in
38w6d (Due date May 10)
If you follow me on social media you probably know that we had our second sweet little girl! I wanted to share her labor+delivery story like I did here with Reeve’s birth story!
I spent Monday-Wednesday doing all the natural labor induction things to get her moving as I had been feeling minor contractions for several days and wanted to get them ramped up to the real deal! I walked 10-12k steps per day, did lunges, curb walked, ate dates, bounced on the yoga ball, drank red raspberry tea, went swimming, sex, pressure points in ankles and wrists, etc. I wanted her to have a May birthday like Reeve and I...but juuust barely because I was getting so uncomfortable with the pelvic pain. I had a somewhat restless night of sleep on Wednesday night (now I know it’s because I was in pre-labor while sleeping) and was supposed to have an OB appointment at 8:30am on Thursday May 2 at 38w6d where I’d have to decide if I wanted them to cervical check and/or membrane sweep (I didn’t do either with Reeve) but when I got up around 6am to pee it was pretty clear that these contractions were legit this time and I woke up Taylor to tell him that I’m pretty sure it’s baby time! I called to tell the doc office I’d go to the hospital instead and they said that my OB was on call for L+D that day which I was stoked about! We called our doula Courtney and she was headed over around 7:30am but the contractions got to be about 3-4 minutes apart so we just told her to meet us at the hospital instead.
The contractions were strong but I was worried that we would get turned away at the hospital just because I was feeling so lucid and okay between contractions which I def was NOT with Reeve and I hadn’t had ANY fluids or spotting at all. We got to the hospital around 8:30am and had them do a cervical check but told them not to tell me my progress until push time but they could tell Taylor and Courtney - apparently I was at 8cm already! So they admitted me and quickly got me to a room to get set up.
We went through all the steps to get hooked up to monitors, decline epidural, etc. with each contraction I would either lean over the bed like I did with Reeve or lean on Taylor. Courtney and Taylor took turns pushing on my hips because just like with Reeve I had tons of upper butt cramping. Courtney has some great methods for relieving some of that tension between contractions and would massage me during rests. I would sit on the yoga ball in between contractions and be pampered by Courtney and then had to stand leaning forward squeezing Taylor’s hands whenever a contraction hit. I was still pretty aware between contractions and was making jokes and signing forms which is not something I remember having the mental space for with Reeve’s labor when i just needed to sort of shut down internally between contractions and be meditative. It’s crazy how different the labors felt to me and I certainly felt at this point that I was having a much easier labor (at least mentally/emotionally)
I started feeling some urges to push during contractions around 10am so they did another cervical check at 10:35 am and I was ready to go at 10cm! The nurse who did the check said “a couple good pushes and she’ll be out!” - I wish she hadn’t said that...it gave me a little bit of false confidence.
Once they got me up on the bed in the stirrups (which is how I pushed with Reeve), the urge to push during contractions went away for the most part...I could tell that she wasn’t as low in my pelvis as Reeve was at that stage. Everyone kept saying “she’s right there just a few good pushes” but it didn’t feel right. I got lightheaded and thought I would pass out so they gave me an oxygen mask between pushes. I didn’t feel like I had the power I needed to bear down and since I didn’t have an epidural with either baby I could distinctly tell the difference of how it felt and the positioning just did not feel right this time. Luckily our OB is amazing and after about 25 minutes of trying to push the traditional way, she asked if I wanted to try a squatting delivery. I was definitely on board to try switching it up so they started to convert the table by putting a big handle bar over it and dropping down a portion of the end of the table so that when a contraction would come I’d slide myself down off the end of the table into a lifted squat holding the handle bar (thank you yoga) and I could tell the difference right away. Baby Fallon started making her way down with gravity and the positioning gave me the power I needed to bear downward with the pushes. My water finally broke but it wasn’t very much at all (which was so surprising since it was Niagara Falls with Reeve) and after 3-4 contractions like that -all the while screaming my head off like banshee and yelling at the baby to “get out get out get out” because it was a pain level that I honestly don’t remember reaching with Reeve so I was next-level animal woman and the noises I made probably terrified everyone on the L+D floor - she FINALLY came out and it was such a huge relief! I was able to pull her up and hold her and marvel at her adorable little face. Fallon came into this world with such fierceness! She looked JUST like her big sister did - it was shocking! Taylor and I joked that they were twins separated by 2 years.
Fallon didn’t leave my chest for the first hour so we didn’t know her stats right away. She was starving and trying to latch on immediately. Her latch was CRAZY strong from the very first instant (like as strong as Reeve’s was at like 5 months old!) My nipples were in for a beating right away but I was glad she was so motivated to nurse! I’d had 2nd degree tearing again just like with Reeve but for some reason the stitching up process seemed way more painful this time around so trying to be still while they do that and push down hard on your belly is not fun at all so it’s a good thing I had this beautiful little miracle baby to look at while they did that!! In total, labor was just under 6 hours and because it was before noon this time (Reeve was born at 11pm) we still had so much energy for the day and were able to call all our family and friends and announce her arrival right away! She weighed in at 7lb11oz measuring 21 inches long and then daddy was finally able to hold her while they did their other checkups on her (but not for too long because she was aggressively sucking on her hand demanding to be back on the boob )
We said our goodbyes to Courtney and our other wonderful L+D staff members, and got set up in the postpartum room with some lunch. It was still early afternoon and we spied on our security camera to watch Reeve napping at home. We quickly lined up my photographer friend Jessica to race over to the hospital and be there by the time my mom and Reeve headed over so that she could capture the moment of Reeve meeting Fallon for the first time! Fallon was only 4 hours old and already had her first photoshoot (which she totally rocked by the way!) Reeve was hesitant at first but definitely warmed up and wanted to give her kisses, boop her nose and she demanded to climb into the hospital bassinet and hold Fallon in there. It was SO SWEET! It was a lovely afternoon getting to spend time with Reeve who thought the hospital room was so much fun while my mom got to hold Fallon for a long time and soak in the snuggles and we called more friends and family and just soaked in all the joy together!
Eventually we had to send Reeve home to bed which was the first night in her life that she spent away from both mom+dad. Fallon has a ton of boob time, dad got a little rest on the uncomfortable couch and mom stayed awake most of the night with heartburn checking the monitor to see Reeve and obsessing over pictures we had taken of Fallon. We got cleared to leave the hospital after we passed the 24 hour mark and happily blew that taco stand in favor of getting home to our whole crew and cozy bed!
All images below by Jessica Hickerson Photography!
