Saturday 19 June 2010

You say it's your birthday, Summer 2026

Evan and Ione Moretti's second set of twins are just around the corner, which means they should probably get started on that whole moving thing! The babies are coming in autumn and they're not going to fit in the tiny fourth bedroom in their current house.

Newlyweds Claudio and Virginia Jacobson are just about to welcome their first child together, a younger sibling for Claudio's daughter, Matilda.

And here she is! Even the cantankerous old landlord is keen to welcome Alice Rosamond to the neighbourhood!

At the dorm, Adrienne Novak has just gone into labour!

The only people around are her best friend Matilda and dorm-mate Sarah, neither of whom know a thing about delivering babies. Thankfully, they do at least have the presence of mind to call an ambulance and get Adrienne to the hospital.

Adrienne's mother, Naomi, rushed to the hospital as soon as she could but by the time she got there, it was all over and Adrienne was ready to get some rest.
She's feeling a little guilty about not being there but Adrienne did just fine, and Dr. Moretti was with her for the entire delivery. Now, she just has some paperwork for Adrienne to sign so they can release Sylvia June into foster care.

Just outside the nursery, social worker Tamara is introducing Sylvia to her foster parents, Tate and Zelda.

Sylvia won't be living with the Bentons for long but they jumped at the chance to be foster parents. They both always longed for a fourth child and although they've accepted that they're too old for another baby now, they're thrilled to have Sylvia with them, even if only for a short time.

We also have four other birthdays in Sullivan this summer!

First up are the Lane twins. Simon...

...and Matthew!

Here's their dad, Eliot as a toddler.

And here's their mother, Cordy, when she was little.

Josh Royce-Nihill is now 12 and about to start high school. His main concern right now is making friends but later on, he's thinking he might like to be a journalist.

Josh's good friend, Elspeth Romilly, has also just celebrated her twelfth birthday. Like Josh, she's only really thinking about her friends for now but she has the vague idea to one day be a famous artist when she grows up.

Notes:
  • There is a new Jacobson family portrait in the Playable NPCs post in the side bar, if you're interested.
  • It didn't seem realistic to me that Adrienne would give birth in the middle of her dorm (having so many home births is already borderline to me!), so I thought I'd try out the hospital instead. I still haven't bothered with that hospital hack, so in game, she gave birth in the dorm and then I sent Cara to the hospital and teleported all the other relevant players in. I like how it turned out, so I might try this again.
  • Sylvia is living with the Bentons now but they haven't adopted her. Adrienne is still legally her mother. Once Rose and Joanna complete the home study and are approved, Sylvia will move in with them and be officially adopted.
  • I'm pretty excited about all the genetic variation just with the Lane boys. Neither Matthew or Simon look too much like Timothy. Matthew seems to be an Eliot clone, apart from having Cordy's nose and Simon looks a lot like Cordy, except he has Eliot's nose.
  • Josh wasn't really a surprise - he still looks a lot like Max. Elspeth's picture doesn't do her justice. She's extremely pretty. I still can't figure out who she looks like though. Ione looks like Araminta, Finn looks like Henry...I guess Elspeth is more of a mix.

13 comments:

  1. Happy birthday to them all. I like how you did the hospital birth, I too tire of all the home births. I wish it were an option since some of my sims love home births-Grey family-while others would perfer a hospital-Kent family.

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  2. Elspeth is gorgeous! Love those Lane boys. And sweet little Sylvia, aww. Here's hoping the best for her life.

    Are u going to do an update of Nick with paternity or just blow past that?

    Your hospital looks great! They are fun to play with medical sims.

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  3. Happy birthday to them all! I can't wait to see what Sylvia June looks like (like the name btw). And I like how you used the hospital. Yay for Tate and Zelda! At least they won't have a late in life baby but still get to "satisfy" that want to have a baby around.

    I can't wait to see the Lane twins grow into their features. More Matthew than Simon because his nose is smaller. But Simon looks like he'll have a baby face for a while. And I just love that toddler pic of Cordy! She is too precious with her hair like that. Elspeth is very pretty. I can't wait to see more pics of her in her next update.

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  4. Thanks for your comments, everyone!

    Apple Valley, thank you! Yes, I think the same way about my Sims. I think someone like Olivia would probably have a home birth but Lia would not. I think of her as a hospital birth kind of person. So maybe I'll start doing the hospital births for the Sims whose personality seems to fit it. I was playing around with poses a while ago and managed to get a nice picture of a Sim holding a baby while laying down on a bed, so that might work well in a hospital setting too.

    Maisie, Sylvia's going to have a sort of topsy-turvy first couple of years but I think she should be able to settle in nicely after that. Hopefully no permanent trauma!

    Funny you should ask that! I was actually just going to go in and rearrange the play schedule slightly so I can deal with Nick's reaction to the paternity test. It'll be a part of Abigail's family's next update.

    I still need to finish decorating the hospital. The ugly Maxis-ness of a lot of it is bothering me!

    Danielle, I'm interested to see what Sylvia will look like too. That Nihill chin is pretty strong in Adrienne's family but I wonder if Sylvia will end up looking more like her dad. Tate and Zelda are going to love looking after her this year.

    I'm excited to see the Lane twins grow up too. I may even cheat and sneak a peek. ;) Cordy was a really, really pretty little girl. I think that's the only pic I have of her as a toddler where you can clearly see her face. I have even fewer of Luc. :( I wasn't as good at remembering to take pictures either.

    You won't have to wait long to see Elspeth again. She's, naturally, attending Finn and Victoria's wedding, so you'll see her there.

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  5. I really like how you did the birth of Sylvia June. The home births bother me a lot, it's very uncommon in Finland. I might try that with the next birth if I ever get the hospital renovated.

    Josh looks so much like Max but I think I can see some Zaria in him as well. Elspeth is pretty :)

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  6. Josh and Elspeth look great, and Matthew and Simon look adorable!

    I'm glad to see that the Benton's will be fostering Sylvia. They've already had one adopted child, so they seem like a good match to me :)

    Haha, finally a single birth with Alice and Sylvia! You're in luck! :P

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  7. Sari, people who want home births here are considered to be very hippy and it's not commonplace at all.

    Hospital renovation is such a pain. There's just not enough stuff out there to satisfy me.

    I can see some Zaria in Josh too, though I couldn't articulate what features of hers he has. Maybe her mouth. His smile seems to have more of an upturn to it than Max's does, so that could be Zaria's genetics.

    Tessa, yes, that's why I chose the Bentons. I figured the adoption agency would have already checked them out when they adopted Jack, so they wouldn't need the intense scrutiny Rose and Joanna will have to go under.

    Ha, these are only single births because Virginia, Claudio and Adrienne don't have that fertility benefit. If someone like Lia gets pregnant this round, I fully expect her to have twins!

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  8. Happy birthday to them all!
    Like all toddlers Simon and Matthew look adorable! And Cordy was such a sweet toddler too!
    Elpeth and Josh are looking good too. I can't wait to see Elpeth again, I wonder how she will act as a teen, she already was a handfull as a child!
    Welcome Alice and Sylvia June! As some others I really can't wait to see Sylvia June grow up.
    Is Adrienne going for an open adoption?

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  9. Tanja, yeah, everyone turned out pretty nicely this time around!

    You'll see Elspeth today, at Finn and Victoria's wedding. :)

    As for open vs. closed adoption, I'm waiting until Sylvia is officially adopted to hammer out the details. Completely closed adoptions seem to be sort of rare these days though, so what I end up doing will likely fall somewhere in between.

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  10. Oh, by the way, I love Cara's scrubs! Do you remember where you got them?

    I love the hospital birth! I'm getting bored of my home births too. Is there a hack for hospital births? Does it allow the birth scene to happen on a community lot? Or is it residential?

    I suppose we could just make the hospital residential and move in for the birth, but that's kind of a lot of hassle, lol!

    I might try to stage something next time around. I was planning on making my Jodie a little birthing center/OBGYN clinic anyway, so it'll be fun to try out. I totally see my Bella as a hospital birth kind of girl, epidural to the max, lol!

    How neat too for the Bentons to get a little baby for a while!

    Oh, Elspeth is just the prettiest little thing! I think we all expected she would be though! Happy birthday to them all!

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  11. Laura, yeah, I think I'm going to stage more of my births so that they're at the hospital in the future. It'll be like on TV - screaming, grasping their stomachs and then they're all comfy in a hospital bed with the baby!

    It's so funny but I had Zelda on another lot as a visitor last time I played and her baby want has rolled away! It wasn't fulfilled, obviously, because she's not Sylvia's mother but I like it when little things like that happen. It would make sense that it quelled her baby fever a little. Trent's baby want rolled away too, but his has never been as persistent as hers.

    Cara's scrubs are from here and there are more colours here.

    And there is a working hospitals hack that lets you have the whole birth scene on a community lot. Mizzgin03 uses it (or she did). She posted about it and linked to it here.

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  12. Oooh, thanks! My next births update is gonna be rocking! (OMG, that has to be the dorkiest thing I ever wrote, lol!) :)

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  13. Laura, you're in good company, I think! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

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