WHO:Emma & Audrey WHEN: Late May WHERE: Casa SwanFire WHAT: Audrey and Emma do pregnant lady bonding. RATING/WARNINGS: None STATUS: Complete
Two pregnant ladies getting together to watch movies and eat sweets? It was like the perfect thing. Audrey collected up some bananas, whipped cream, ice cream, nuts, maraschino cherries, sprinkles… and whatever else she thought looked good in the candy aisle. She’d brought with her a portable, make-your-own banana split bar. Because she’d promised sweets, but really didn’t feel like baking. (That didn’t happen all that often!)
She knocked on the door of Emma’s place, holding the bag of goodies, and wearing a bright smile. Hopefully they could pick some really good movies. Did they agree on what kind of movies they liked? Actually, that didn’t really matter. Audrey could watch anything. And ice cream made everything better.
Ice cream in the Swan-Cassidy household was a given.
Not just because of Emma’s constant cravings for ice cream either, it was pretty much a guarantee that they’d have some in the freezer, but more was always good. “Hey,” Audrey’s bright grin was met with one from Emma to mirror it, waving the other woman into the house. “Mind the dogs, but the boys are both out.” Henry at school until later and Neal busy at work, Mystique and Hawkeye were really the only pair to cause trouble in the house.
“You need a hand? Jeez, did you buy out the store there?”
“Hi!” Audrey beamed at her friend when the door opened. She came inside, and shook her head a little. “I love dogs! It’s totally okay. And, of course I did.” A little laugh escaped Audrey as she wandered further into the house, looking for a place to set down the bag of goodies. “They say not to go shopping when you’re hungry, but I find when I’m pregnant it’s hard to find a time when I’m not hungry.”
Leading Audrey to the kitchen, Emma could laugh a little in agreement, moving to get some boards, bowls and dishes to put all the treats that Audrey had bought. “Oh, I know. Most of the time, Henry had to put what I picked out back, because we genuinely just didn’t need it.” It was bad when the teenager was the responsible one while shopping.
“But now I’m not even allowed to go shopping so, that takes care of that particular problem.”
Audrey laughed. “I know how that goes, too!” She nodded, smiling brightly. “It’s nice that you’ve got Henry around to help you from filling your cupboards with junk.” She moved to follow Emma and help unpack all the goodies. “Well, it’s also nice that you’ve got Neal and Henry both to help you take care of all those little things. You need the rest, you’re making a little person!”
Emma was so lucky that she had Neal and Henry, and there was no doubt in her mind about that. And if it wasn’t her boys it was her friends, just being amazing through the whole journey. It was so wildly different from her first pregnancy that Emma had actually enjoyed it, even with all the discomforts that came with it all. “He’s pretty good at making sure I’m not just buying a load of junk. There’s always some fruit or something healthy forced on me.” The fact that Henry had checked what she should be eating was kind of cute too.
Setting out the bananas, and oh how she suddenly couldn’t way to make sundaes, Emma just nodded along in agreement. “The person making is getting intense. Aside from false starts and scares, there’s the constant kicking. Which is good, of course, he’s a healthy little guy and I love feeling his enthusiasm, but my bladder needs a rest.”
Audrey knew that feeling. Her husband was a bit of a worrier, and her best friend was a nurse. So she, too, always had something nutritious on her plate. Mostly fruit and vegetables to go with the amazing pastries and baked goods she seemed to survive on. “Are you doing kick counts now?” Audrey asked. “I found them to be both reassuring and terrifying in my last pregnancy. We haven’t gotten there quite yet. And Braxton Hicks? Have those started?”
“We stopped the kick counting when we kept losing count.” She wasn’t sure if Niko was just trying to talk to them, or if he was just a fidgety baby. Between the moving around, kicks to her side and the bladder bouncing, the doctors were sure that he was already shifting around so that he was ready for when she went into actual labour.
“We were at the hospital earlier because of them,” since Neal was very sure that they should stick to the books and what they said, too many contractions in one hour meant they had a trip to the doctors just to check on things. “My uterus is officially in training for full labour and likes to let me know.” Although since she’d been put on house arrest it was slightly less frequent and she was accepting that maybe she’d been pushing it a little too much trying to keep going on what she had been doing. “I am just so ready to meet this little one already.”
“Oh, I definitely remember those days,” Audrey said, grinning softly. It meant she got Ben out of the deal, so all the things leading up to that made her smile. Even if it was… well, a lot of work. And pain. The end result was worth all of it.
“And I know that feeling. We’ve got quite a ways to go, this one and me.” And Merlin and Ben, too, but that went unsaid. Audrey ran a hand over her tummy. “We’re gonna find out the sex of the baby soon. I’m pretty excited about that--get to find out if we’ll be reusing onesies or if we’re gonna be shopping.”
Finding out the gender had been a bit of a debate in the house for them -they mostly went ahead and found out so that naming wouldn’t be too hard and so that Regina and Henry could settle their bet. But it did seem like an idea to make sure you knew just what you needed. Since they were buying everything from scratch anyway, Emma hadn’t been overly bothered about that.
“That’s if you don’t get gifted with a million and four things anyway.” Since Emma was still curious about this upcoming baby shower that Regina was throwing. But it sounded like fun, even if she wasn’t used to being the center of attention all the time. “Because I hear baby stuff just appears sometimes.”
“Oh, I don’t think I’m gonna get many gifts. I mean, this is number two in almost as many years. So I think people assume that we’ve got all the things we need. And for the most part, we do. Merlin and I knew that we wanted to have at least one more baby after Ben was born.” Audrey explained. “Though, if it’s a girl… that might make a difference.” She grinned softly. “People seem to love shopping for a baby girl.”
“I loved baby shopping in general. I went way overboard with the little toys.” But then, Emma didn’t really get to do it the time before. But babies in general seemed to really bring out that in people. “At least you don’t need to get all the big stuff again. I mean, kitting out the nursery took so long and it’s kinda frustrating watching Neal and Henry build and not help.” Because the men were working, Em. They had that! Ikea was evil though.
“Are you guys gonna find out what you’re having?” It was impossible for Emma and Neal to not find out, aside from the ultra sound giving it away, and Henry and Regina having the wager, they’d been too curious not to. It helped narrow down the naming too.
Audrey chuckled. “I remember that. The little onesies and pants and shirts and toys. Teethers? I could seriously spend my weight in gold on that kind of thing.” Audrey had spent more time thinking about clothes and toys than she had the more important things--like breast pumps, diapers, baby baths, and carseats. Those were all Merlin’s responsibility. She didn’t mind sharing.
“Yes.” Audrey said, nodding. “It’ll be good to know what sorts of things we might want to get new, and what sorts of things we can pass along. I’ve kept so much of Ben’s clothes and toys, it’ll be good to know if we can re-use it, or give it to someone who’s having a boy.” Not that Audrey was too picky about the color of things, but if she had a girl she wanted to make sure to get her some girly things. “And when we found out we were pregnant again, I started to really look into gender-neutral stuff. It’s really silly, but … I don’t know. It feels weird to put a girl in some of the clothes that Ben wore.”
The baby store had been a huge test of Emma’s hormones. Dangerous place when she was cooing over everything and crying at the adorableness of anything. But the plus side was that once you had the bigger things; like those car seats and changing tables and cots, you didn’t need to get them again. Bonus. The only reason Emma and Neal needed them all was because there was almost thirteen years between their kids.
“You’re probably fine with the whites and creams, yeah, but I guess when they’re that little it doesn’t really matter what you put them in, they’ll worry about it later.” So far, Emma and Neal had been largely colour neutral. They had a safari themed nursery, lots of greens and yellows, and Emma had shied away from too much blue, just because she didn’t want to over do it really.
“But hey, that’s part of the fun in it, right.”
“Things like those cute little jeans and onesies and blankets and whatever else don’t really matter.” Audrey said. “I mean, the first few months won’t really matter, either. Because she’ll just be wearing onesies and receiving blankets and stuff. I have a feeling she’ll get some cute presents and hand-me-downs for special occasions, but other than that? So long as she sleeps, I don’t care what she’s wearing.” Audrey was going to miss sleep. Again.
“I think so. I don’t have to worry about putting together a registry, because we just had Ben. That was a pretty stressful endeavor.” Putting together a registry felt like a lot of pressure.
Sleep was currently something Emma was struggling with. Comfort was … iffy at times. Emma was aware that it wouldn’t get easier all that soon, but she was mostly excited for the prospect of it all than dreading it yet. This might be her second kid, but circumstances being what they were, it was her first baby. “Those first few months where they’re just swaddled up in sweet blankets, probably don’t need too much in the way of clothes.” They had piles of the stuff upstairs though.
“We took Henry to do that, he had way more fun than we would’ve really.” Family bonding thing, and Henry had been pretty enthusiastic about picking out all the things his little brother was going to need.
Making up her banana split, plenty of cream and lots of sauce, and some cherries. Yum.
“Oh, I bet Henry loved that!” Audrey beamed, putting the finishing touches on her own sundae. Then she started to pack up the supplies and put them away. The cream had to be refrigerated, and the ice cream would melt if it wasn’t in the freezer. (Audrey just made herself at home in other people’s kitchens. It was part of her nature.) “He’s such a good kid. I’m sure he’s going to be a fantastic older brother.” With a smile, she lifted her bowl.
“What movie should we watch?”
Emma had no doubt that Henry would be an amazing older brother, he was already so excited for it all, just the same as his father really. They were all just looking forward for this to be done and have their little unit complete. “Something funny, but not too funny.” Emma wasn’t sure if she’d be able to control the pregnancy incontinence if they put something on that had her giggling too much. “And definitely not something sad, jesus, we’d be a mess.” They could find something on Netflix, she was sure…
“Funny but not too funny. Got it.” Audrey gave Emma a bright smile. “Let’s not have tears today, unless they’re tears of joy.” That sounded like a good plan for the day.