Friday 30 October 2015

Eyes wide open

Round 36: April 2043 (Autumn)


Rebecca Collins is 34 and Nathan is 33. 
(Trent is 73, Megan is 71, Susannah is 33 and Caitlin is 20)


Narrated by Rebecca Collins

It’s been two years since our wedding and it’s really flown by. It really doesn’t feel like Nathan and I have been married for two years!

It really doesn’t feel like only two years since we last went on holiday either. We both feel like we need to go away again already.

Nathan wants to buy a house in Three Lakes, so we don’t ever have to worry about accommodation and can just go up whenever we want to. 

We’re years away from being able to afford something like that but it’s nice to dream about it. 

Maybe it’ll happen sooner than we’re expecting, seeing I’m bringing in more money these days.

I was offered the opportunity to do some guest lectures to psych students and I jumped at the chance.

It wasn’t just the extra money, of course. It was exciting to be able to do something new.

I do one or two a month and I work so hard on the lectures themselves, as well any handouts or other materials I want to include.

I really enjoy sharing my knowledge though and working with the next generation of psychs.

It’s kind of fun that my niece, Caitlin, is one of the students too.

Fun and a little scary. I was pretty young when she was born but it’s still weird to think that she’s old enough to attend lectures.

The day I did my first lecture, Nathan also got a a huge pay rise, so we went out to celebrate.

We might not have the luxury of dropping everything and going out to dinner one day, so we do it as often as we can now.

Nathan and I started trying for a baby in the new year and I’ve sort of surprised myself by how exciting it is for me.

I didn’t picture myself as the type to be that interested in talking about nursery themes or baby names but it’s about all Nathan and I talk about these days!

It’s a little different when it’s your own baby you’re talking about.

I’ve only told one friend that we're trying - Susannah - and she’s really excited for us.

She and Daniel are hoping to have a baby soon after they get married, so we might end up with kids fairly close in age. 

Nathan wants to be pretty private about our trying, so we haven’t told our parents yet. Both sets have a tendency to be quite nosy. 

It’s been so tempting to just tell Mum and Dad though, if only so they stop asking when we’re going to start a family. 

But I know the questions would just change from “when are you going to have a baby?” to “are you pregnant yet?”, so we probably wouldn’t get much relief.

Mum is getting pushy though, because at 34, I am now ancient and need to start pumping out babies yesterday.

In a month or so, if everything goes well, Mum will finally be satisfied as I’m currently in the very, very early stages of pregnancy.

It’s much too soon to say anything to anyone, so we’re keeping it quiet for now.

Or at least, we’re trying to. I don’t know how we’ll explain it if I have one of my all-too-frequent bouts of morning sickness at a family thing. 

So far, it’s all been confined to home or work, where everyone is busy enough that they don’t pay too much attention to what I’m doing anyway.

I’m really trying to enjoy this pregnancy but I’m feeling pretty crappy so far. If I’m not nauseous, I’m exhausted.

I hope Nathan is right and this will all be over once I get through the first trimester. I don’t think I could take it for much longer than that!

Notes:
  • Title is from Eyes Wide Open by Gotye.
  • Yay, a baby for Rebecca and Nathan! All I can say is that I hope Baby Collins gets a Collins chin and not a Kirby one. ;) Gotta breed that thing out, lol.
  • Rebecca is due in February 2044, which will be exactly three years since the wedding. Nice little anniversary present. 
  • I'm loving that Rebecca was promoted to Psychology Professor. It seems like the sort of job she could much more easily do part time with a baby, versus clinical work where she has to keep up with clients. This is the first time I've played through this career, so I really had no idea what was coming but it couldn't have worked out better.
  • I have also switched back to InTeen birth control, after years of using the ACR BC. I missed knowing whether my sims were trying for a baby or not, which is a nice little indicator of when your sims might be ready for kids. Especially for non-Family sims, who so often do not roll baby wants at all.

16 comments:

  1. Woo!! So excited that they are having a baby! Though I'm opposite of you, I love the chin! I'm thinking the chin with his more prominent freckles and the baby would be totally adorable! I haven't gotten that far in the career, and I agree that it is a nice position that she could do easier with a baby at home. I love that it's landing on their anniversary too, that's such a nice little gift. Maybe they can get a tiny cabin out in the mountains, then sell it and upgrade later if they have a much larger family.

    Megan and Trent are always so keen on the those grandbabies. It has been quite a while since one was born, and sadly great grandchildren don't fulfill the grandbaby want, which is a shame.

    Yes, the inteen birth control is great! That is the exact reason why I use it, I like to know what my sims are thinking. I'll be keeping an eagle eye on Violet-Adele once she ties to knot to decide when I take her off birth control.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. LOL, I've had enough of that damn chin! It's absolutely endemic in this hood. So I will continue to hope for a Collins chin - still strong but not massive!

      But I am very excited about the baby, no matter how he/she turns out. I love that they tried as soon as I took them off ACR BC, as I wasn't sure what would happen. But the timing is really working out so nicely, what with Rebecca's promotion and their wedding anniversary.

      Megan and Trent basically have permanent wants for grandchildren. And for relatives to get engaged and married. Seeing all their daughters are married, I guess they've got their sights set on Declan and Jessica, lol. And the game doesn't even recognise great-grandchildren, which sucks. :( I wonder if TS3 does. I really like how the relationship panel in that game will actually show you how a sim is related. Fun little addition that I would have appreciated in TS2.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  2. I was actually about to comment that I love Rebecca's chin, it's so unique, and then saw your comment about breeding it out, lol.

    I like the Inteen biological clock-- I remember that about it, that you got a pop up if your sims were trying for baby, right?

    I love what you did with Rebecca's job as a psychology professor, and how cool that Caitlin is in the group she lectures sometimes.

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    Replies
    1. LOL, honestly, I don't think you guys have seen the half of Rebecca's chin! I take pictures that tend to minimise just how big and pointy it is. It also depends on what interaction she's doing at the time. In the first picture, she's front on and it looks fine but it looks weirdly skinny and poky at other times. So yeah...not a huge fan! But like I said to Maisie, part of the problem is how damn common it is in the hood!

      The pop-up actually comes from ACR. If you're using Inteen BC, ACR thinks you're not using any BC at all, so your sims will continue to try for a baby, unaware that Inteen is stopping them from conceiving anyway. I'm not getting the pop-up though, which is probably due to my reinstall. I think it's off by default.

      Caitlin scored highly for quite a few careers when I did the careers criteria on her but in the end, I had her major in psych so she could go into social work. She's very nice (unlike Rebecca), so I think she would like doing something like community development, where she could help a large amount of people at the same time. But we'll see what happens. I don't think the social work career has a community development level but I can always pretend. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  3. Ha ha, about her chin. It is well represented in your hood, isn't it? lol! In my hood, I think I might come to regret Bruce's nose after a couple generations, especially since both of his children want big families. :o

    These two are the cutest newlyweds ever! I'm so happy they're having a baby now. (Oh, and their cat on Tumblr is so cute too! With the butterflies! <3 )

    I miss grandparent wants! I don't know if TS4 doesn't have any or if I just haven't had enough grandparents in my game to tell.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It really is...that infamous Kirby chin! Some of my founders had some really interesting features - I just wish they had spread around the hood a bit more evenly than they did.

      Oh, Anais! I wanted to put some pics in of her too (Nathan is very taken with her) but they didn't end up fitting into the story. Anais is like their practice baby. ;)

      Yeah, I really like the grandparent wants, as insane as some of my sims are with them. It's nice that my sims feel connected to their family members outside their household. That's what I wanted when I started this hood and now I have it.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  4. So funny, Carla, you really are fed up with that chin. And thanks for the clarification on the pop-up. I just remembered using Inteen birth control and I remember the pop-up, but had forgotten it came from ACR. I remember clicking on the biological clock and turning BC on and off.

    Laura, I don't think I've ever seen a grand baby whim in Sims 4, although I'm not sure. Have you had a sim with the Successful Lineage or Big Family aspiration? I haven't had many of those. I miss the grandbaby wants too, although it drove me nuts in Sims 2 that they would roll it again right away after getting one, never content, never satisfied. And they seemed so obsessed with it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Heh, I was just going to tell Laura you'd be the one to ask about grandbaby wants in TS4, seeing you have plenty of grandparent experience and here you are!

      Delete
    2. I do have quite a few family aspirations, but only one, I think, who has grown (or is it grown and married?) children. That's Orion, and I'm about to play their household soon, so I will certainly pay close attention to him. Not only that but Lucy is about to birth his next grandchild, so if there was a whim to be rolled, he should be the one to roll it, lol!

      You know what else I was wondering recently... in TS4, have you ever seen a "have a child with..." whim from a sim who was NOT married? I am curious. I do recall that sims could roll baby wants in TS2 without being married. I remember Piper used to roll them all the time before she ever even had a boyfriend, lol!

      Delete
    3. Well- this is getting a bit off topic but since you asked and Carla was going to tell you to ask me anyway -- I've seen other people post S4 screencaps of their sims having whims to try for baby with someone other than a spouse, but I don't remember having that in my game yet, and I'm not sure if their's were a result of a cc glitch. It's definitely an omission not to have sims whim for that, because in real life people do, not just for their spouse. I think the Sims 4 romance whims may fall a bit too much in an orderly fashion, which isn't an accurate simulation of human desires-- I think Sims 2 was better at that. But I think they are still planning to keep tweaking those things, like the way they just tweaked jealousy to add more jealousy as well as more awareness to sims of what's going on around them. I look forward to seeing if Orion has any grandbaby whims.

      Delete
  5. For some reason when you shared sneak peeks of them, I knew that she was pregnant. Not sure why, lol! I can't wait to see their baby and the new nursery. Have we ever seen a lot tour of their home?

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    1. Maybe I was being a bit too obvious about not mentioning it, lol! But in any case, I guess you were right. ;)

      I don't think I did a lot tour here on the blog but I did one at N99. It was a long time ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if you don't remember!

      http://starlightsims.yuku.com/topic/69854/Lot-tour-Nathan-and-Rebeccas-house

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  6. Heh, I do see what you mean about the chin. :) I'm all for strong features in my sims families but some of them are ridiculously strong.

    And yay, for the baby, so exciting!

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    1. Exactly. There's that and the fact that it's so common in my hood. If it was just one or two sims, I don't think I'd mind so much!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  7. Yay, how exciting! These two seem inseparable and are a really cute couple. Look forward to seeing if the baby gets the Kirby chin or not, lol! ;) I'm sure it will be a cutie, considering the freckles these to have. :)

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    1. I can't remember if I put the pics up on Tumblr or not but Nathan and Rebecca really are inseparable. They follow each other around the house and join in with whatever activity the other is doing. It's quite funny!

      I am definitely looking forward to a freckled baby! So excited, lol!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete