101. After being told that her age made a natural pregnancy unlikely, Fallon defied the odds by conceiving spontaneously just one month after deciding to try. Her story is a refreshing look at how shifting your mindset and simplifying your approach can lead to a miracle result when you least expect it.
On episode 101, we have Fallon on to share her spontaneous pregnancy at 40. Fallon was never the girl who dreamed of being a mother. A full-time yoga teacher with a life she loved, she was content being a “dog mom” until the loss of her dog and a new marriage changed her perspective. On the night of her 40th birthday, she and her husband finally decided to go for it. One month later, she was staring at a positive pregnancy test.
In this episode, Fallon talks about the shock of conceiving so quickly, the challenge of navigating a pregnancy with hardware in her pelvis from a previous accident, and what it was like to hear her daughter’s heartbeat for the first time without her husband. From a scheduled C-section on the summer solstice to the ego-stripping challenges of breastfeeding and low milk supply. She reflects on the “sisterhood” of mothers that finally let her in and why she’s choosing to be one-and-done at 40.
About the Guest
Fallon Lev is a vibrant mother who challenged the conventional narrative surrounding fertility over 40. After initially being met with skepticism about her chances for a natural pregnancy at her age, she approached her journey with a blend of intentionality and ease. By focusing on her mindset and physical well-being, Fallon achieved the “impossible”—conceiving spontaneously within just one month of trying.
Her story serves as a powerful reminder that while the road to motherhood can be long for some, it can also happen with surprising speed when the right mindset and conditions align. Fallon shares her experience to inspire other women to remain open to the possibility of a quick and natural success, even when the “experts” suggest otherwise.
Connect with Fallon:
- Instagram: @fallonlev
Key Topics
- Defying the Odds: Fallon shares the experience of being told a natural pregnancy was unlikely due to her age, only to conceive spontaneously in her very first month of trying.
- The Power of Ease: Why “trying less” and shifting away from a high-stress, clinical mindset was the key to Fallon’s rapid success.
- Simplifying the Journey: How Fallon streamlined her approach to fertility by focusing on basic health and mindset rather than expensive or complicated interventions.
- Navigating Medical Skepticism: How to stay grounded in your own body’s potential when faced with discouraging statistics or expert opinions.
- The “One Month” Miracle: The shock and joy of a positive test so early in the process and how she managed the transition into motherhood.
- Advice for the “Over 40” Skeptic: Fallon’s best tips for women who are just starting their journey and are afraid that it’s “too late.”
Resources & Links
Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. I only recommend products our guests truly love!
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Community: Join the Over 40 Fabulous Facebook Group
Transcript
Jamie: Fallon, welcome to the show.
Fallon: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here with you.
Jamie: And we are sharing her story at 40. But before we begin, Fallon, will you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Fallon: Yes, i’m a full-time yoga teacher and now stay at home mother. I’ve been married since 2022. I basically had this like long sci. Crush on my now husband for many years and then I made him my man. Becoming pregnant at 40 has become a really big part of my story and something that I feel really passionate about, like screaming from the rooftops and hopefully create some big impact in the world.
Jamie: I love it. Tell us, how did this begin?
Fallon: So I never grew up with the desire of having children. I just wasn’t that girl that had that big dream of becoming a mom. I was a mother to a beautiful four-legged dog that stole my heart and was my entire world for 13 years. And I will say like losing him really triggered that like desire to become a mother.
Absolutely had no desire to have a baby with my previous partner. Once I did meet my now husband, I was like, you need to be a dad. Once I met my husband and we were married. Like the idea of becoming a mom started to warm up to me. But it wasn’t until my 40th birthday that we both looked at each other and we were like, okay, it’s go time. Like we need to like have some serious conversations about this. Do we want to be become parents? And yeah, we made that decision basically the night of my 40th birthday and I got pregnant a month later.
Jamie: Oh my gosh. Wow. So were you doing anything special to get pregnant?
Fallon: Honestly, I was not, I will say I had made a goal of getting into the best shape of my life at 40. So I do think I had that going for me. I was very healthy, very active. I’ve been teaching yoga for 15 years, so I have a very wellbeing, health and wellbeing has always been like a priority for me. So I’ve always taken really good care of myself.
Jamie: And what kind of diet are you on? What do you eat?
Fallon: My diet is not anything to write home about, like I joke about it. I do feel very fortunate and grateful that I have incredible genes. I always joke that I say I was like born with abs. This is my first time in my life, like postpartum where I’ve had actively had to yeah, be a little bit more intentional with the food that I am consuming.
With that said, I do live in California. I live in San Diego, so I’ve always prioritized organic food. I definitely have a sweet tooth, so that maybe goes against me. But I do try to have a well balanced diet. Like I am a big indulge. I love a burrito. I love ice cream, but I think like very, like typically my day to day diet does consist of greens and fruits and healthy food.
Jamie: Okay. Take us back. You got pregnant in a month. How did you know that you were pregnant?
Fallon: Oh, I’m so glad you asked this question because I had absolutely no idea. I had gone to visit my girlfriend in Portland who had just had a baby, and I spent the weekend with her and I was.
Pretty much repulsed by her baby. The smell. I know it’s so bad. I should just start. I should also share I’m not really a baby person. I’ve never been a kid person. I just didn’t have that maternal. Feel. But that weekend her baby was spitting up like nonstop and I just could not get close to this baby because I was just getting so nauseous and still I spent the whole weekend with her.
Never once did I question, am I pregnant? Like it didn’t even come across my mind. I did notice, I was like actually like leaning into the conversations and like listening more to like her sharing and asking more questions about motherhood. There was definitely a curiosity there, but still I had no idea that I was pregnant at that time.
So the day I got home from that trip, I was teaching yoga. I teach a lot of hot yoga and the nausea continued. And I like, there was just this moment where I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like, oh my God, I’m pregnant. Like I, I didn’t know, but I knew. And then I went and took a pregnancy test. I’d never taken a pregnancy test in my life, so I felt like I was 15 years old, so ashamed, embarrassed to buy this pregnancy test. And I literally called my best friend from home and I was like, wait. I did not believe it. I could not believe that it was true. I had to take another one the next day before I even told my husband.
Then when I went to have my full first ultrasound, I didn’t even bring my husband because I thought that I was just going to have a urinary test, like something to like the doctor was going to tell me something different like that I wasn’t pregnant. So anyway, my husband wasn’t even there when I heard my baby girl’s heartbeat for the first time.
But yeah, that’s how I found out. It was basically like, I felt like it was a big prank, but it was very true and I was so excited.
Jamie: That’s amazing. After one month. That’s really awesome.
Fallon: It was pretty cool.
Jamie: How was pregnancy?
Fallon: I loved being pregnant. Yes, it was my favorite thing I’ve ever done.
Yes, I did feel nauseous up until I’d say 12 weeks. And that was basically like the hardest thing that I went through. For my pregnancy. Of course there was like the discomfort of watching my body change. I had no idea that the majority, at least for me, of my pregnancy, like I just looked bloated.
And it wasn’t until the last few months where I was like, yes, felt empowered by my pregnant body. I just loved it. I am so glad. I’m literally looking at my refrigerator right now. I documented the whole thing. I took pictures every week, which I highly recommend. I did like little Polaroids and it’s so sweet and so cute. It was just like such a beautiful and empowering experience for me and my body.
I was in an accident in 2020 and I fractured my pelvis and I was literally in a hospital bed for three months and then had to learn how to walk again. So there wasn’t really any certainty of how my body would respond to the pregnancy. I still have hardware in my pelvis, so I was told after that surgery, I had two surgeries during that time that I would never have a vaginal birth. So the entire time of being pregnant, I knew that I would have a scheduled C-section.
Yes, there was grief attached to that, but at the same time, I just chose to really focus on the joy and like the beautiful pathway that I was able to bring a human into the world.
Jamie: Will you tell us about like your doctor? How did you choose your doctor?
Fallon: Actually. My doctor was pretty random and I absolutely loved her. She never once mentioned my age, like she never mentioned. Yeah, it was incredible. And like at the end of my pregnancy we did talk about it ’cause I thanked her for that.
I just wanted to like really recognize how empowering she had made my pregnancy. She was like, actually, I’m more alarmed when a 20-year-old walks into my office than I am when a 40-year-old woman does. So she was just so on board and she made me feel so seen the whole pregnancy. So I got very lucky. It was completely random, but I loved her.
Jamie: Oh, what a relief that is.
Fallon: Yeah.
Jamie: And tell us, how did you find out you were having a girl?
Fallon: I just knew and I was so committed to being a girl mom. Like I was so committed to my husband being a girl dad. I’m like, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Of course, I would’ve loved a little boy but. We found out we had a gender reveal party. I went to Little Rock, Arkansas where my mother lives and her friends threw us this big party. It was very cute. My husband’s Canadian, and he’s a big hockey player, so we had him hit a puck and it bursted pink and it was the best expression and celebration. My mother was just like over the moon. It was the cutest, the sweetest thing.
Jamie: That’s really cute.
Fallon: Yeah, it’s so fun.
Jamie: I was really committed to being a girl mom too, until we found out who we had a boy. Oh,
Fallon: oh, I love that. I think it’s so beautiful either way. Like.
Jamie: It is.
Fallon: It really is. I love the commitment and then the surrender. That’s beautiful.
Jamie: Tell us, is there any like products or anything that maybe helped you have a great pregnancy?
Fallon: I did take, I use needed prenatals and I’m actually still using them as much as a. They were very hard for me to, swallow at times. Like I do think that it was really helpful and I felt really healthy throughout my whole pregnancy. I had incredible energy. I did work out three times a week. I was doing these strength training classes and I think that really helped as well. But the prenatals I’m planning to take, for as long as I’m breastfeeding and I’ve just felt really like they’ve been very empowering to my experience.
Jamie: That’s great. And what was the brand again?
Fallon: It’s called Needed.
Jamie: Okay, N-E-E-D-E-D?
Fallon: Yes.
Jamie: Okay. I’ll make sure I leave a link for that in the show.
Oh
Fallon: yeah. I actually also have a little 20% off discount that I could share with your listeners. Oh
Jamie: yeah, that’d be great. Thank you. So how did you prepare for her, like birth wise and even like in the home?
Fallon: I would say working out was being in a room like surrounded by other pregnant women was really encouraging and supportive, especially through that transition of watching your body kind of change shapes. I think that can be really challenging for a lot of women, but surrounding myself by with the right people and just feeling that like support and sisterhood, that was really important for me, like emotionally. And it also just allowed me to connect to so many women.
I also shared my whole pregnancy on Instagram and I felt so seen by all these beautiful mothers. Like I had no idea, the amount of support, like once you become a mother, it’s just this, yeah, this, these doors, the gateway just opens. And you are so seen and so held by this like unspoken sisterhood. It’s been so beautiful. So I’d say just surrounded myself by the right people.
Then as far as preparing at home, I actually didn’t do much. I am more of like a type B person, and I obviously purchased the crib, the rocking chair, like the essentials, but I didn’t wanna overcomplicate the situation just because as a first time mom, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and rather than going out and spending a ton of money on things I didn’t need, I chose the path of just waiting to see what I would actually need.
I will say the one regret or thing I would have done differently would’ve been to educate myself more about breastfeeding. I just assumed it was going to happen naturally and it was gonna be easy. I had no idea. I was very naive walking into that experience, and that was the hardest part of motherhood. That has been the hardest like hiccup for me so far. .
Jamie: Did you take any classes at all?
Fallon: I did take one online class and I was like, okay. I felt informed, educated, but like you just don’t get it until you get it,
Jamie: until you’re in it.
Fallon: Yeah.
Jamie: I totally agree. Now, you mentioned support. Who was like your main support sys system that you leaned on?
Fallon: I would say my best friend from kindergarten who has been a mother for 10 years longer than me. I think the cool part is as someone who is pregnant in her forties, a lot of my girlfriends, their children are already 10 or in high school. And so I felt so supported because all of these women are like, basically we’ve been waiting for you to have a baby.
So they just I just felt like they just wrapped me up in their arms and like I had so much support from so many different directions. My mother of course, was absolutely amazing. She lived with us for the first six weeks after Stevie was born, my daughter. And I literally cannot imagine going through that experience without her.
I will forever be grateful to everything that she gave me and just how much she held us during that time. And then as I’ve shared, I have just one of the most compassionate, loving, nurturing husbands who was my rock and watching him step into a fatherhood.
I do think the unique thing of having a C-section, the husband or the partner almost has to step up a little bit faster because after a surgery you’re, outta commission for a little bit. So watching him bond with Stevie, like night one was so beautiful and so sweet and he’s just been unbelievably supportive throughout my whole pregnancy. And then as well as, becoming a new mom.
Jamie: I love that. So is there anything else you wanna mention about your pregnancy before we get into your C-section?
Fallon: For me, I think like one of the things that was most helpful was just staying active and being in relationship to my body through this lens of just unconditional love. I think that some women can, there’s a lot of of course, grieving of past self and you’re becoming this new version of yourself when you step into motherhood, but I deeply cherished day by day, week by week and month by month. Like the whole experience of my becoming and watching my body and surrendering to just like the changes and the different seasons that my body was moving through, and I think that the more you can as a woman who is pregnant or hoping to become pregnant, the more you can really love your body throughout the entire experience, the more joyful the whole journey is going to be.
Jamie: That’s perfect. Tell us about your c-section. Like how far along how did you plan that?
Fallon: My doctor was so cool and she understood that I’m a yoga teacher. I love numbers. I really wanted my baby to be born on the summer solstice, and that was six 20 and which was exactly put me at exactly 40 weeks.
And typically, from my understanding, c-sections, if they are going to be scheduled, will be a little bit earlier. I honestly didn’t have the option to have a vaginal birth, so we were like flirting with danger a little bit. But I was very committed to this summer solstice birthday, and I also just wanted the experience to carry full term.
I wanted to feel empowered that my body could do that, and we made it to 40 weeks. We chose the date. The night before, it was just like one of the most magical moments where you’re just like going to bed see you in the morning, baby girl. It was a beautiful experience. I had a team full of all women and I was so grateful that my doctor was able to be there that day. Just hearing her voice helped me feel really calm. I was really amazed by like how quickly it all happens. It’s one minute my husband and I were creating a reel in the waiting room, and then like literally 10 minutes later the baby was born. And then, yeah, the rest of your life is just, it all changes like snap of a finger.
Jamie: Yeah. So did you get to hear her cry? What was that? What were you thinking during those moments?
Fallon: I remember being really adamant about the delayed cord clamping and I had put together like a whole birth goal plan. I made it really cute, which I loved. I put like a picture of my husband and I from our baby shower and I just made sure that I used language that felt like my personality because something that’s always been really.
Important to me is I wanna feel connected to my doctors. I want them to see me as a human, see me as a woman, as a mother, just as a girl. So that people at the end of the day, like we all just wanna feel seen. So I used language to just like showcase my personality. I felt very connected to all of these women that were on my team and.
So during birth, when she was doing the cord clamping, I remember just freezing, I felt like stunned, like I had no idea what was happening. I’m like, why are they’re because they were just holding up the baby, but she wasn’t crying or anything, and like the doctors all looked happy.
So I was like, okay, everything’s okay, but I just had no idea what was happening. And then of course, yes, the baby started crying. They were able to give us skin to skin right away, which was really sweet. During my C-section, I played a beautiful playlist and I, we put like shuffle on and the song that came on was this beautiful song by Sie Jane that says, oh, I love you.
And I just felt so much peace and so much love in the whole room. So I feel like the whole room, everyone that was a part of my birth experience, like I’m just so grateful for the atmosphere and the environment that was created because it just felt like a room full of love.
Jamie: What else was on your birth plan?
Fallon: So the cord clamping was really important to me and then to hold on the vaccinations was another thing that was important to me. I said that I wanted my husband to be with the baby at all times. I did ask for the clear sheet that goes in between. But I had my eyes closed the whole time, but I think I thought I was gonna be like so much more engaged and I’m like, girl. It was just a different experience. Uhhuh. I’m really happy with the path that I chose because, like I said, my hands were on my heart, my eyes were closed. I felt like really tuned into the experience that my body was currently experiencing.
Jamie: Did they not make you lay your arms out flat?
Fallon: She did. She started to do that. Okay. And then I asked her if I could keep my hands on my heart, and she was like, of course, I want you to feel comfortable. And then the anesthesiologist was talking to me about hand mudras and she didn’t even know I was a yoga teacher, so it was like. That’s why I’m saying it felt so intentional. Like every single woman in that room, it felt like they were all there like with a purpose. Like we seemed to have the same sense of humor. I was like joking when they were giving my me my spinal, my doctor was massaging my shoulders. Like it just was like this closeness and this beautiful bond that I know that I’ll forever cherish.
Jamie: Do you wanna get into the re your recovery or do you wanna talk about breastfeeding first?
Fallon: We can talk about breastfeeding.
Jamie: Okay. When did you get to first try that out?
Fallon: Right away. And that’s why it was shocking. I was like, you want me to stick my I just, I didn’t I mean I got it, but I didn’t get it.
Jamie: Uhhuh
Fallon: and the baby’s so small. I felt so tender. Everything was just so fragile about those like first few days. And I dunno if you’ve heard it, but just to me, people kept saying those first few days are just such a fog. I just felt like I was in survival mode. And just everything was so new and you’re just given this baby, this beautiful heartbeat that just looks at you with her whole soul and you just there’s a lot. For me, it was a lot of surrendering and a lot of just trusting. I had to trust these doctors. I obviously had my mother there with me, but she is only able to help so much. Like with this is what you do in I really just needed it to be like simplified because I was overcomplicating it in my head, like I couldn’t understand the latch.
And now it’s so funny, I’m still breastfeeding and I look at it and I’m like, how did I not get this? Like how could my mind not understand it? But when your emotions are high, like your intelligence is like all over the place. And I was so emotional. Obviously you just have a huge surgery. You’ve also just given birth to a human, I like had a really hard time just understanding the concept and I gave a lot of my power away. It was the first time in my entire life where I just felt like I had zero confidence and that was really hard for me. I felt like my confidence had just been stripped and I felt so vulnerable in that moment.
I just had to continue to trust like these lactation consultants and trust these nurses and doctors and there was so much information and I didn’t really know how to find my voice and I wasn’t really sure at that time, like I hadn’t unlocked like that, like super mom, like intuition and power.
Jamie: Were you able to breastfeed full time or did you need to do a combination?
Fallon: So we did a combination. Okay. I don’t know if it’s true, but I have heard that when you have a c-section, it does impact your milk supply and honestly, my milk supply never really fully came in. I’ve always struggled with low milk supply, and I did everything I could do. I literally took all the supplements, ate all the oatmeal, all the cookies, et cetera. I opened up my community on Instagram and I just had so many people sending me all of these beautiful recommendations and all of this advice, and I literally did it all, but from the beginning, my milk supply was low, so we did have to supplement with formula, and that was really hard for me at first. Very hard. It felt sad, it felt defeating. I felt a little bit of shame, a little bit embarrassed, just like, why me?
Why can’t I do this? Like, why not? I was committed. I didn’t wanna give up on the like process. I committed to six weeks, and when you are postpartum, freshly postpartum, six weeks feels like an eternity, but I made it to six weeks. It was still pretty hard and my milk supply was still very low, but I did find a formula that felt really safe and healthy and everything that I was looking for as far as wanting to feed my baby the best that I could.
So I’ve been using Bobby Formula from the beginning and it’s been great. My baby girl has never had any issues with gas. She is full chunk, like the chunkiest little thing you’ve ever seen. I’ll have to attach a photo so you can see her little arm bowls. She’s got like just these croissant arms and they’re so delicious.
We’ve been combo feeding from the beginning and part of me felt like it was the end of the world when I had to introduce formula. And now on the other side of that, I just feel like I get the best of both worlds.
Jamie: Yeah, I think there’s, I felt probably a little bit of shame having to use formula too. Like almost Hey, my body should be able to do this. And that realization is you do have to surrender that.
Fallon: Yeah. And for me, especially being in the yoga community, having a lot of. Crunchy friends that I like, respect, honor, and deeply love. Yeah. The shame came in heavy, like almost like wanting to prove myself and like I had something to prove. Yeah. But the minute I surrendered it was just like, honestly, I think it’s beautiful because it allows me the freedom to. Be out of the house. It allows my husband the opportunity to bond with our baby girl.
And for me what triggered, once I found full acceptance was I just hated pumping and it was really taking a toll on my mental health. Once I was able to wrap my mind around that okay. This does not feel good. This is not supporting you becoming the best mother that you know you can be for this baby. Then I was able to make a really empowered decision to stop pumping because it was not feeding my soul, and it allowed me so much more time to be a mother, to be like in the field of energy That was more important to me than this like machine. I didn’t wanna feel attached to this machine. It just gave me so much more head and heart space to show up as my best self.
Jamie: That’s really nicely put. What about your recovery? How was it?
Fallon: I had a pretty seamless recovery. I feel bad, not bragging about it. Because I know for some women it is really hard. Like postpartum can be really challenging. Like your emotions, your hormones, everything is just like a rollercoaster. Because I felt so supported by my mother and by my husband, I had a really seamless recovery.
Physically, my body, like my scar is absolutely stunning. Like my doctor really crushed it. It’s beautiful. I was shocked by how low it is. I could not even believe I’m like, wait, no one is ever gonna see that. Except me and I like cherish my scars. I have a few other scars in my pelvis from my accident in 2020.
And now I just feel like it’s this beautiful canvas of just life experience. And I do wear the scar like a badge of honor. Like I mean that like I look at it and I love it. I’m like, I brought a human into the world through that and I think that’s been a really helpful lens, just like the lens of love.
But what else for physically? Yeah. I was very obedient. I’m such a rule follower. I didn’t do any physical activity for the first six weeks until I was cleared by my doctor. And then I started walking. I would do like a block and then two blocks and then a mile. Just last month I did a 30 day movement challenge just for myself, and I was walking two miles every day and then I was doing like yoga or strength training class whenever I could, and that’s felt really great.
I did recently go to a pelvic floor therapist and learned so much about scar massage and just how much For me, I thought the massaging your scar was just more like for the aesthetics, but it really has so much like impact on just everything like your pelvic floor, the skin, the way it’s all connected. And I obviously don’t know enough to speak to it, but I do recommend even if you had a C-section to go see a pelvic floor therapist, I think it’s so educational and so empowering.
Jamie: That’s great. And because you’re 12 weeks out, do you feel like you’re fully healed?
Fallon: I do, I feel like so many people are like, I don’t know. Yes. I feel amazing. I really do. Obviously like my body looks very different. My ribcage is, I carried my baby very high. So my ribcage definitely had, I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s spread.
Jamie: I don’t know.
Fallon: Okay. Which makes sense like, ’cause I have a very short torso, so that baby had to go somewhere. So basically my rib cages like, spread so that the baby had somewhere to rest, to chill, to grow, to become.
I feel pretty great. As far as like feeling strong in my body, I feel amazing. And visually I do think like of course, like I’ve always been someone who’s worn crop tops, shown off my belly.
I would love to continue to nurture. The weight loss part of the journey, but I don’t feel attached to that being like a specific number anytime soon. I just feel really motivated by how I feel physically and right now I feel really strong and that’s amazing.
Jamie: That is amazing. And mentally, how are you?
Fallon: I know this is gonna be annoying, but I’m like the most positive person, but it’s like really authentic and truthful. But I feel incredible. Like I feel like myself just better. I feel really calm as far as like being a mother. I love the mother that I am and I had no idea like how I would be.
Obviously I know it’s gonna change and evolve as my baby grows and becomes, more of who she is. But I love the way that I’ve stepped into motherhood, and I continue to say this, but as far as what supported me, I am so open with my vulnerabilities. I reach out to other women in my community like daily, and I’m just like, as a first time mom, I literally know nothing. So there’s no shame in that. I wear no shame. I almost wear that like with pride, I’m like. Mothers, there’s so much wisdom for us all to share, to feed off of. So the more that you can just let go of like any masks or walls you may have put up to protect your ego and just allow yourself to be seen in this like incredibly vulnerable ex. Like Experie, the more support you’re going to receive. And having that support has been absolutely everything. And I think that’s why I’ve had such a positive postpartum experience. Like I just feel so connected and I feel so grateful and so seen.
Jamie: Is there any, is there anything else you wanna mention about postpartum?
Fallon: I do think it’s important that women understand. Postpartum doesn’t always have to be so scary. That was for me while I was pregnant. I was really dreading postpartum. I just wished it away, and now that I’m in it, of course I know not everyone’s experience is the same, but now that I’m in it personally, I think it’s important to give a voice to the positivity that is available to women and allowing yourself to be held by other women and sisterhood and just like really honoring this incredible chapter and this new season in a vulnerable, truthful way is going to give you just such a beautiful lens to experience postpartum for what it is, all the highs and all the lows.
Like it’s this absolutely beautiful roller coaster that we are gifted. It’s like such an incredible season, and I’m so grateful that I chose to take this path.
Jamie: And Fallon, do you plan to have more kids in your forties?
Fallon: The last thing my doctor said to me when I saw her at my six week appointment, she’s like, all right, I’ll see you next year for baby number two. And gave me like a cute little wink. And my husband and I like going into our pregnancy. We were pretty committed to one and done. And everyone kept saying you, you just wait. You just wait until you have this baby. You’re gonna want another one. And we’ve checked in with each other multiple times since having her baby. And I’m. Obsessed with my baby. I love her. I love being a mother, but I also feel still very committed to one and done.
Jamie: Okay. And what has been your biggest challenge being pregnant in your forties?
Fallon: I would say some of the comments on the internet. There are just some nasty people out there. And I think the one comment that people would say is just oh, you’re going to be 65 when your baby, when your daughter is 20. And I’m like, yeah, what’s your point? Like 65 is a beautiful age. Like my mother was older when she had me, and I think that the more we can rewrite these narratives that like your life is over at 65, or that 40 is too old to have a baby. I absolutely love that part of my story. I feel so confident that I had my baby the exact time I was meant to. I love the life that I lived pre-baby, and to be honest, my life hasn’t changed that much.
Like my husband and I have always eaten dinner at 5:00 PM We’ve always gone to bed at 9:00 PM like we just added a baby to the mix. And I will say, if you have a fur baby, you’re prepared because that just teaches you how to care for someone else, how to be selfless in the experience of caring for another heartbeat.
And I think my dog was that for me. He absolutely showed me the path of motherhood and I’m just so grateful that, yeah, I decided to take the leap and become a mother. But yeah, as far as other people’s opinions and narratives, it’s just noise. It’s just like chatter. And I think that’s why what you’re doing in creating, like using your platform and your voice to help shift this narrative for other women to know that it is possible and that there is hope and there’s no rush.
And I love the idea of just tossing any timelines, especially if they’re not your own, most of the time it’s. Other people’s voices or opinions that we’re carrying that puts the pressure, and I think that is actually one of the things that worked really well for me, getting pregnant so quickly. I didn’t have any pressure.
I didn’t have it wasn’t like an absolute, I need to have this baby. Like I was just like, we were open to it, we had opened our hearts to the idea of conceiving, but it wasn’t like a need or any desperate energy, and I think that worked really well.
Jamie: Tell us what, how did you handle those comments that came in?
Fallon: You know what? I think that there is room for everyone’s opinions, and I think that you are allowed to speak your truth. For most of the comments, I would just ignore them. I actually just chose not to engage with it. I would say 97% of the comments are so beautiful and so liberating, and so grounding and encouraging and supportive. I have women who are DMing me just saying how much like my voice has helped them.
Even women who are in their early thirties, who of course I think there’s like this thing about be when you become 30, when you turn 30. I need to have a baby, this urgency. And I think that the more we can showcase the possibility of becoming pregnant past 40, the more women are gonna have a sense of ease and calm. And it’s so grounding, like when you just release those expectations and allow yourself to just enjoy your life, live your life and trust your journey. And trust your path.
Jamie: That’s perfect. And is there anything you’d recommend that would help prepare someone for pregnancy and birth over 40?
Fallon: I would say just what I just said, but take care of your body. Love your body, live your life. Try to release any pressure, tossing the timelines, and just enjoy the life that you’re creating and who you are and trust that your time will come. I think trust is a big factor. I know I’m speaking a little bit more to the woo, ’cause I don’t have really that much like scientific advice or yes, I can say take your prenatals, I can say get in the best shape of your life. I do think those things really help. But I think that self-love, can sound very cliche. It’s also such an important factor when you are stepping into the season of pregnancy and especially motherhood, like loving who you are, loving your body, treating your body like a vessel, and really feeding it with nutritious foods, nutritious thoughts. I think that sometimes that can get overlooked.
Jamie: That’s so important. And what advice would you give yourself when you were pregnant, if you could go back?
Fallon: The one piece of advice would be just to educate myself more about breastfeeding. I do think what I did very well was I really cherish the whole experience, like I remember one of my girlfriends telling me like, take all the photos, take all the videos, like document your experience. I did this like iconic photo shoot and I will have these beautiful photos of myself for the rest of my life that I know I would’ve regretted not taking. So yeah, my one piece of advice I’m gonna go with, take the photo shoot.
Jamie: I love that.
Fallon: Do the photo shoot. Go big, go home.
Jamie: Definitely. And where can our listeners connect with you?
Fallon: I live on Instagram, I am always in my dms. I truly cherish the connections that I get to make with other women. If you send me a message on Instagram, it’s going to feel like we’re best friends because that’s how I feel and that’s how I want you to feel. And I post on there just relatable, real mom conversation and content. It was all pregnancy and now it’s all first time mom stuff. But yeah, there is. Lots of opportunity to connect on Instagram, my website, all things fall in love.
Jamie: Fallon, thank you so much for sharing your story at 40.
Fallon: Oh, thank you for having me. Such a great pleasure.