Chapter 30: If at First You Don't Succeed - Try and Try Again

Sets backs have not been many in Christmas' life. As promisedto her mother, she's been generally happy, easy to find satisfaction in even little things, and with a drive and strive for perfection that has made her succeed in most things.

Getting pregnant is not most things, and this time neither her drive, her strive for perfection or her ability to feel satisfied helps her conceive. For the first time in her life, there is little she can do that will actually make a difference.

They do their best to keep their spirits up, discussing baby names at dinner...



painting playful paintings for the nursery...



and finishing the treehouse for their future kids to play in. They want two, one girl and one boy. The prefect family. If they would only show up.



Perhaps the treehouse will yield a lucky result? Worth a try.



Whether it was the treehouse, or the many tries in the bed, Christmas finally finds herself pregnant! Just as she was ready to give up on tradition and suggest using science to succeed. Christmas is over the moon.



"Can you see the bump"
"Isn't it a bit early for that?"
"What do you know? I need to text mom!"



The very next day, the couple make the trip to Willow Creek to visit her mother, who is more than happy to see her daughter and talk about her pregnancy. Willow is delighted at the idea of becoming a grandmother!



For a large part of the evening, Jamie is left speaking to Derek as mother and daughter get lost in details of the pregnancy. Not that he minds, Derek is nice, and someone who has more than a few stories to tell.



Like how one of their neighbors suddenly showed up, all blue with cold, building a snow man in his underwear.



But as nice as the evening is, and even though it's New Years Eve, Christmas is tired from the pregnancy and wants nothing more than an early night. So while Christmas and Jamie returns home and have an early night, Willow and Derek settle into their familiar routine. Derek finally gets to set that fireguard on the fire place as they "can't have babies and toddlers around an unsafe fireplace" and Willow settles down in her mother's chair with a book.



At dinner they discuss becoming grandparents, for this is how they see it. Derek might never have been Christmas' father, but he does intent to fully be this child's grandpa.



To their surprise, there is a knock on the door very late in the evening. Outside, Corinne is there. "Why aren't you in bed, sweetheart?" Derek asks, giving the girl a hug. "And where is your mum?"
"Crying about dad. Again." Corinne says, as her father died just a few days early (making Willow exclaim this was precisely the reason why you shouldn't have babies too late in life, although she wouldn't say that to Olivia's face, of course.).
"Does she know you're here?"
"No. She doesn't notice anymore."

Derek let the girl in, then calls her mother who comes running. They persuade them to stay and watch the countdown to midnight. Corinne is just happy to be allowed to stay up that late and return home with her mother after without a fuss.

For the young Landgraabs, the new year start as the last one ended, with full focus on little Valentine. A little sunshine, his parents have been enjoying playing with him and teaching him to sit up, almost getting lost in their own little bubble of family life.



But as Christmas and Jamie are hosting a baby shower/birthday party for Jamie, they decide to leave their little bundle of joy, just turned toddler into the hands of a sitter as they attend the party.

Christmas, highly pregnant by now, is at the bbq and patio area by the pool are decorated for the occasion.




The party is made even better because Jamie got another promotion, finally officially becoming a journalist!



He blows out his cake...

and is given presents. Well present for the baby, but he's happy about that too.



Christmas is exhausted when everyone finally leaves. Jame offers her some massage before bed.



She's getting big now, and often wakes up in the middle of the night to pee, and if she raids the fridge for leftovers while up... well that's normal, right?



And then one night, finally, she wakes up with back pains. The baby she's been longing for is finally here!



She wakes up Jamie who drives her to the hospital.



And a few hours later they return home with a beautiful baby boy they name Link, for the connections he'll forge in life. Both parents are completely enamoured with their baby boy.




Christmas finds herself with a new aspiration:



There are lots of extra trash with all the diapers.



First visitors are of course grandma Willow and grandpa Derek.



Willow cannot dote on her grandson enough.



They eat outside on the patio, more norm and exception for Jamie and Christmas.



And Willow helps out in her daughter's modest garden.
"You don't have to, you know!"
"Of course I do. These plants need water and you two have my grandson to look after."



Link soon grows from a newborn to an infant.



And so his parents can start bringing him places. Like Sunny and Carolyn's place, where they can spend some time talking about their children.




Valentine finds his new second cousin very intriguing, and does his best to entertain him.

When they return home, Links is happy, but tired and hungry.



They're glad it's summer, so that they can both spend some time with Link, not having to worry about work, so when Derek ages up to an elder, they bring Link with them to visit grandma and grandpa.



Willow has made sure the house has everything needed to care for an infant who has just learnt to sit up and is trying his first baby food.



As Link naps after eating, the adults gather for lunch. Christmas isn't sure what she thinks of Derek's new shorter hairstyle. Neither does Willow to be honest, but she figures hair grows and he'll get tired of cutting it all the time.



On Summer Solstice Jamie and Christmas take a walk around the lake, Link napping in the baby carrier.



They take turns watching Link while the other one swim in the lake.



Later in the evening they host another party, celebrating link, their love for each other and summer in general. This time Valentine is allowed to come with his parents. He doesn't like Willow much, and promptly kicks her.




She prefers just cuddling with Link, however, enamoured with her new grandson.



As summer ends, and fall begins, Christmas and Jamie are already talking about making Link a sibling. Well more than talking to be fair...



But with autumn comes work, and now they need to try to balance their schedules to manage Link. Some days it works fine, Christmas doesn't work on Monday's for instance and so she takes care of their baby boy. Getting up to feed him at night.



Taking him jogging in the morning.



And falling asleep on the sofa when he's napping in the afternoon.



Other days Jamie can stay at home to take care of him.



But the day does come when they have to hand him off to a nanny for the day. Christmas makes sure he's well fed before.



And only reluctantly hands him over.



But Nanny Marina has a long experience with children, and knows what she's doing. She makes sure baby Link is well fed and rested when his parents come home, mixing baby food with the nourishment of the bottle which he still prefers at times.



And when he returns in the afternoon, Jamie finds his boy rested and eager to be with his parents again.



That night, as Link is asleep, only days away from aging up to a toddler, Jamie and Christmas is lying back on their lawn looking at the stars, dreaming of the next child who is also taking her (if Christmas has anything to say about it) sweet time in making an appearance. It's certainly not for lack of trying that Christmas isn't pregnant again.
"Should we try the science route this time?" she suggests.
"But don't we want it to just happen naturally?" Jamie asks.
"Yes, but it doesn't seem to happen, does it?"
"Let's give it a few more tries first. If it hasn't happened after Link has aged up, then we'll try it the science way." And so it's settled, but even as Jamie points out a constellation in the sky, they are both hoping that a science baby will never be the route they need to take.