Sky blue sky

Round 30: June 2031 (Winter)

Jacob's last update/last update/next update

Trent Kirby is 61, Megan is 59, Claudia and Jacob are both 30 and Daphne is 4 months old.
(Liam is 68, Victoria is 30 and Keira is 8 weeks old)

Narrated by Claudia Kirby

Jacob and I used to be able to laze around in bed at least a couple of mornings a week but that doesn't happen very often any more!

If Jacob doesn't need to get up at the crack of dawn for work, one of us will need to get up for Daphne. Jacob is working 10 hours a day right now, so if he has the day off, I let him sleep and I get up with her.

I don't mind. Daphne's a good little baby and once she's been changed and fed, I like having that quiet time with her.

I might be annoyed if Jacob tried to avoid responsibility for Daphne when he's at home but he doesn't. As soon as he comes home from work, he goes up to the nursery to see her.

Jacob loves being a dad. It's so sweet to watch him with Daphne.

Daphne was sort of a surprise for us; we weren't planning on having a baby so soon. We were excited from day one but also very nervous.

She's been a really easy baby so far though. She's usually smiling and has been easy to settle when she's not.

Jacob wants to have another one. As in now. He brought it up on the way home from the hospital!

He and Tatiana are 18 years apart, so they've never really had a traditional brother-sister relationship. For our kids, Jacob likes the idea of having them really close together, to foster good bonding.

I don't think our kids need to be quite that close together! I just want to enjoy Daphne for a while and wait a year or so before getting pregnant again.

I'm sure Liam wouldn't be opposed to us having another one! He doesn't live very far away and he comes to see his granddaughter quite often.

He's always thought of Tatiana's kids as his grandchildren as well but Daphne is his first grandchild from Jacob. So she's quite special to him.

Having Mum and Dad around has been helpful...most of the time.

Dad's been reading up on babies again, since it's been such a long time since there was a baby around here.

Not that he needs it though! He's always been a natural with kids.

Mum has softened a lot since Declan was born. Daphne was born into a completely different situation but I admit that I was still worried.

She still drives me completely insane sometimes. Some days, it seems like every time I try to close my eyes for five minutes, Mum will choose precisely that moment to start giving me advice about sleep training or how I should be using cloth instead of disposables.

I'm learning to deal with that though. I try really hard not to engage with her, because it makes her worse.

So I just nod and smile and murmur non-committal things like "oh really?" and "that's interesting, Mum". Eventually, she moves on.

I picked up that little tip from Victoria. She's been dealing with Mum's unwarranted parenting tips for 10 years now. I think she'll always be a know-it-all, so it's easier for us if we just accept it. We can laugh about it.

I know she loves us and all the grandkids, so she does mean well. Her way of showing she cares just happens to be really frustrating.

I've been able to see Victoria almost every day recently. We're both on maternity leave, so we drop Daphne and Keira off at a creche and head to a local park to just chat.

We've always been close but with her married with children and me still living with flatmates, it felt like we were leading completely different lives. Now that I have Daphne, I feel like we're on the same page again.

Keira is two months younger than Daphne but of course, I'm the novice here so it's been me asking all the questions and Victoria passing on her wisdom.

Victoria's jealous that I can already fit into my regular clothes again. Daphne's only my first, so we'll see how I look after three. I don't think Victoria should feel too bad about carrying xtra weight.

She's set herself a goal to be back to her pre-Caitlin weight by the time she goes back to work next April.

When she mentioned work, I figured that was as good a time as any to run something by her. I'm due to go back to work in February but lately, I've been thinking about not going back at all and just staying at home with Daphne.

Victoria was a little surprised. She never considered staying at home but things are tight financially for her and Finn; it's never really been an option. And she really likes working outside the house anyway.

When I worked, I enjoyed my job and I saw myself doing it for a long time. But that was before Daphne. I can't imagine leaving her to go back to work. I could almost cry just thinking about it.

Victoria didn't think I was crazy, at least. But it's Jacob I really have to convince.

So I sat Jacob down and explained everything to him, exactly the way I explained it to Victoria.

He had some reservations about it. He was confused as to why I would want to let my degree go to waste, when I worked hard for four years to earn it.

He's also worried about our finances. We can afford me staying home now but will we always be able to?

But I never said I was going to stay at home forever. I wouldn't mind doing that but if I need to work, or if we get to a point where I feel like our kids don't need me at home as much, then I can always get another job.

Hearing that eased some of his worries, at least.

Jacob's very supportive of me with this now but he doesn't think I should make a decision just yet. I'm going to wait until I'm nearer to the end of my maternity leave and then decide if this is something I really want to do.

I'm fairly certain I won't be going back to work but giving it a little more thought can't hurt.

Extra:
So I ended up cutting this whole scene out, because I'm such a pedant. It needed to be this pose, it needed to be this angle but I wanted Claudia in her everyday clothes. But for some reason, her thighs went weird with this pose in her everyday clothes, so this was the only way I could make it work. I just noticed there's a Romance thread at N99, so it might fit in well with that picture theme.

Notes:

• Title is from Sky Blue Sky by Wilco.
• Megan is actually quite a keen grandmother this time around. But she's still Megan, so she's still driving her daughters mildly nuts.
• I had Victoria selectable at the park and she has the want to earn a body skill point. So I guess she wants to lose some of that extra weight she's put on.
• Unless I can think of a good reason why she wouldn't, Claudia will be resigning from her job when she finishes her maternity leave. I have actually never had a Sim who stayed at home with their kids full time, which seems unrealistic. Claudia is a good candidate, because she doesn't have a career LTW and she is constantly rolling the want to quit her job, or stay home from work. So I'm giving in.