#ojfoj

[roosterbruiser]

whenever you have the time, I’d love to hear more about Faye’s other pregnancies. I’m obsessed with Landslide. It’s a masterpiece!

sorry I let this sit in my drafts for so long!!! omg!!!

canonically, I'm making it so Faye really enjoys being pregnant (and good bc they have FIVE girls) because I've tortured her more than enough in the story :,)

here's a blurb I wrote about Olive:

And then, of course, there was Olive. And the house was never even close to quiet ever again. A crackling baby monitor, some battery-operated toy, hiccups, crying, giggling, abused piano keys crying unceremoniously, gleeful chattering, babbling, burping, tiny feet on the kitchen tile. Olive was always relentless--plagued with a never-ending case of hiccups, especially when she was upset--and walked through life with a certain boldness only her aunt had possessed. It took Olive a few moments to cry when she was born in that white-washed hospital room just before midnight--stubborn as she is, she only relented when her daddy touched her for the first time. She is the oldest daughter, the bravest, the boldest. Self-assured, secured in her place in this world. 

Faye's pregnancy with Joni is about as smooth as a pregnancy can get! chasing around a toddler keeps Faye on her toes, but Bradley always makes sure to spoil her rotten as soon as he gets home.

her biggest craving is giant salads. and we aren't talking flimsy little things, either. we're talking the words: cooked pasta, breadcrumbs, cabbage, butter lettuce, carrots, peppers, vinegar dressing, tomatoes, chicken, seeds, nuts, etc. Bradley would obviously start calling Faye "bunny" during this period bc of that!

after her less-than-steller experience birthing in a hospital, I think Faye would opt to give birth at home. she already knows that she can do it medication-free, but they go to lots of classes anyway! I imagine that Faye is only in labor for a few hours, just like she was with Olive. and then Joni Caroline is born late into the night on October 19th, 2023.

here's a blurb I wrote about it:

Then there was Joni--sweet Joni, endlessly quieter than Olive, but doted on relentlessly. Joni was always watching--those big, brown eyes lingering over still faces and laughing forms and moving screens and cloudy skies. But we--Bradley and I--we could always hear her. It was the humming. She hummed from--what feels like--birth. Always a low little vibration in her throat, her eyes far-away and glassy, her little lips a flat line. When Joni was born, when I pulled her from the warm water and onto my naked chest in the lowlight of the living room, she didn’t cry. Frantically, the midwives checked her airways while Bradley and I rubbed her back, cooing at her. Her airways were clear and she was breathing; she just didn’t have anything to say. 

similarly with Olive and Joni, the pregnancy is easy. she's a surprise baby, but it's a happy surprise! chasing after two toddlers does keep Faye on her toes, but they have family living close to them by the time she's pregnant with Finch!

they keep the gender a surprise, even though they both feel like it's a boy. they don't know why other than they just assume after two girls, they'd get a boy. they settle on the name Finch and don't really look for a girl name at all!

but as soon as Finch is born and is absolutely a girl, they decide that the name Finch is absolutely perfect anyway.

here's a blurb I wrote about it:

Finch came screaming into the world on the coldest day in February, roaring herself into this serious world with a very serious cry. As I laid on the bedroom floor, the plastic sheet beneath me crinkling with my every movement, she bawled and bawled and bawled. It wasn’t until I put her to my breast, only minutes after birth, that she relinquished all thoughts of upset. Finch has always been insistent--always attached to the boob when she was an infant, always begging for more of this, more of that. But as insistent as she has always been, she has been the kindest soul to ever touch this earth. She used to rush into the house in a frenzy, holding an ailing baby bunny, begging me to save it, mommy, save it! She was the resident bug collector, releasing spiders and centipedes outside safely. She would hold hands with anyone, would never leave without kissing us goodbye, and was never embarrassed to let her dad hold her on her shoulders at concerts--even when she was too big. 

Bradley and Faye have three sweet and perfect girls and decide what the Hell? why not have one more!

and then they get pregnant with twins. twin girls!

I feel like this is Faye's most complicated pregnancy. knowing that she is carrying twin girls is a genuine physical reminder of her own sister every single day. worrying about repeating the mistakes of her parents or repeating any part of her history is a major concern for her. Bradley's constantly rubbing knots out of her shoulders at the end of the day.

physically, she's dealing with more weight and less room in her womb, but she's been pregnant a few times by now and knows how it goes. pregnancy agrees with her, even if it's twins!

Bradley is more concerned about two newborns than anything else, especially since the other girls aren't very old yet!

but then they're born and they're the most perfect little souls to ever grace this earth. they complete the Ledger-Bradshaw family to a tee--complete with their big brown eyes and loud mouths.

here's a blurb I wrote about it:

Last came Opal and June. My last daughters stretched me to my breaking point, waiting until a cool June day to start my labor. It was my longest and most grueling one, which was unexpected. Twenty-three hours of me pacing around the house like a wild animal, heavy with two baby girls, twisting this way, stretching that way, standing up, kneeling, leaning, swaying. Little Opal was born first--and she was slow to emerge from me. Coming into my arms at four in the morning a tiny and pink thing, furrowing her brow at me as if I'd interrupted her quiet night. Shortly after Opal was June, who was sweeter and quieter. She was born with her eyes wide open and looking into mine--they were the eyes of my grandmother, deep blue and very intense. They have always been attached to me--attached to my hip. Despite being born in the same hour on the same day, Opal is louder than June. She is more than June in every way: more emotional, more angry, more happy, more hungry, more thirsty. Opal was my only daughter that cried when I left her at daycare for the first time. June held her hand quietly, diligently, but did not tear up. But when I returned only a few hours later, grocery bags in the backseat of the truck, June wrapped her arms around my leg and would not let me go. I sat in the car with them for a long time, the engine cut and the ice cream in the trunk melting, just petting their hair and explaining that I will always come back. Always. This is not to say that the twins love Bradley any less than they love me. And he loves them just as fiercely as he loves me, Olive, Joni, Finch. But they have always been my shadows. They were the last to stop breastfeeding, the last to stop sleeping in our bed, the last to take their training wheels of their bikes, the last to leave the house. And even now, when Opal needs comfort, she will openly weep and wail until we are cooing and patting her hair and kissing her cheeks. And even now, when June needs comfort, she will hold onto me and not let me go. They use their spare keys often.