OMG Brynne that doctor should be shot. My doctor let me call all the shots, and even though a lot of things went wrong he still listened to my wishes. I can't believe how arrogant some doctors are. I feel for you.

I don't have NL installed yet. Waiting to upgrade my computer first. My current PC can't handle it. I'll have to keep that in mind when I do load the game ... may have to eat my words about the easy pregnancies. 

Hear, hear. Have they never heard of underwires?
 

LOL! My baby was 8.5 pounds so I can relate ... didn't mean to imply that birthing was a snap. I didn't use drugs, and I've never screamed so much in my life. Lamaze, in my experience, was a waste of time. You've got to breathe deep and scream through those contractions. It helps. Very satisfying. Panting, my ass. I think the "I want to go home now" is a very normal reaction. I think every mom thinks at some point, "what the hell have I gotten myself into?" 

Actually, I've had lots of single sim moms that lived by themselves get through pregnancy relatively easily. They just order pizza and sleep a lot. One trick I use if a lot of needs are heading toward orange is send them to bed until sleep is at least in the yellow, then get up, use the potty/eat something/take a shower before going back to bed again. Repeat as needed.

The energizer machine works too, of course, but they have to be at least in the gold, of course, or you could kill Mom and Baby.

I agree that a comfy bed is a plus. I always splurge, now, on at least a comfort 4, for everyone unless they're completely broke. Lazy sims, especially, wake up much more refreshed after a long shift at the hospital, for example. 

I've found that with pregnancy you can't wait until they're past the halfway mark to take care of their needs. For example, if their bladder is at half full, then is the time to use the potty, the reason being that they will most likely also become very hungry and tired soon. Don't wait until a need is in the yellow before taking care of it. If they're alone during the day, make sure they talk on the phone to get their social up, but only if they're well rested (I wish they could talk sitting down, like in RL ... oh well ...) Or, have someone over for a nice game of chess.

Treat pregnant women like the infants they are going to have, at least in terms of taking care of their needs. Make sure they take naps as soon as they're allowed to "sleep" instead of "rest." If they're not doing anything and everything's in the green, have them study or read a book, relax and daydream, meditate, stuff like that that isn't energy taxing. If they live alone get them a maid. If they can't afford it, invite someone over and influence them to clean, then let Mom go take a bubble bath. Make sure her enviroment stays nice and clean. Order out instead of making her cook, and always have gelatin at the ready for sudden snacking needs.

In other words, pamper the hell out of her.

That seems to work for me. Actually, it works in real life, too, speaking as someone who has given birth. Building a baby is hard work.

In households with lots of kids and teenagers and others running around it gets more hectic, but it's still doable. Pause the game. Assign each kid a chore while Mom takes a nap. Have the teenagers take care of the toddlers. Have someone else order a pizza or cook dinner for everyone.

They're the in-game sims at the "boy" Greek house at Sim State. In case anyone was curious.

And, thanks. I'll try that. I did think it was weird that my Greek house was level 6 and I still couldn't get anyone to pledge ...

You just have to decide which sims are worthy ...   

Yeah, sorry about that. Had I known there was already a "witch" I would have picked a different name. Witches is a shorter version of my extremely long name on WorldSims but I didn't want the Fishy one to banish me for using it ... he's complained about it before.    (Plus, I think it exceeds the limit for this site.)

At least we have different avatars. Just think of me as the one with the green cat eyes. :-)

Oh, and I can so totally see Ashley and Castor as gay. Never thought of it before. Still, in my game they're straight. For now. I've got a very cute young man who'll be going to college soon who prefers other boyz ... he may just tempt our Castor. :-)

I'm not sure about the bunny ears thing, but I do know the picture reflects, to some degree, the way a family feels about each other.

I know this because I had a romance couple who were constantly cheating on each other, and they went from lovey-dovey in their original picture to arms crossed, looking angry and back-to-back when he caught her cheating to back to lovey dovey after they made up.

Throughout it all their daughter just looked disgusted LOL.

I usually make them go through an entirely different career, first, if they have career-based aspirations. That keeps them interesting, longer. I agree they lose some of their appeal when they're permanent plat.

I guess it depends on the plans I have for a sim. If I don't like a sim I'm more likely to let them achieve their goals because then I don't have to worry about them anymore ...

I have a set of triplets, based on the Triplets of Belleville, whom I plan to let get old once they reach permanent platinum. I want to keep them alive, as elders, as long as possible, and I think permanent plat will help with that. They're destined to be my neighborhood wise women/witches, just like in the movie ...

If a sim wants woohoo with 20 sims, and it works out, fine. But 20 lovers at once, forget it. 20 best friends is more doable but still not that likely.

I maxxed out skills for a couple in my old hood. It was a lot of work. Now I let sims practice skills when they're in the green, mood wise, but I don't push it. If they want to play pool instead, no problem ...

So ... it helps to have a plan. What do you want the sim to achieve? How much do you like them? How much do you like watching them struggle?  

I think the rabbit ears means playful, too ...

All very interesting perspectives ... I'm a newcomer and have been enjoying catching up on some of these threads.

I don't impose my own sense of morals on my sims. It's a game, and games should be fun. Fun for me means variety, so I let my sims decide their own moral codes.

For example: Sheldon the mailman is a player sim in my game, and a complete jerk. He's a meanie who taunted his stepson so his wife left him. He didn't even care, took up with Andrea Hogan, who is a bit of a slut, the next day. They're both fortune sims, crass, rude and obnoxious, with good taste in decorating. Contrast with my "player" money sim who is a fairly nice person, if a bit of an ice princess. Things just roll right off of her. She's permanent platinum, a good mom, on good terms with everyone, a very even keel person who is happy so long as her surroundings are lovely.

I had a romance sim couple who cheated on each other constantly and then suddenly got lovey-dovey in their old age. Their constant bickering scarred their oldest daughter for life. She's romance too but will never settle down ... yes, I'm projecting a bit, I know they're just little pixels, but what fun is that? Their son, on the other hand, got the benefit of the lovey-dovey years. They became elders when he was just a child. So he's very stable and wants to settle down with a nice girl ... and picked Dad's second wife, who's twice his age ... I never said he was normal.

And so on. Every sim has their own preferences. You just need to figure out what they are and have fun with it. I plan for a very tragic time in college for my next round of young adults ... mayhem, madness, possibly even murder ...

Just like to keep things interesting ... 

This is one of the funniest stories I've read yet. I know I'm entering this thread late, but I wanted to tell you I laughed so hard when you introduced the Viking Mime guy I thought I was going to pee my pants ... and thus lose the RL Email challenge LOL.

I realize that plastic surgery doesn't get passed on to the kids, but I'm not planning on having Brittany breed. She's not the maternal type. Instead, I made her this cool party pad that will only get cooler once I get NL. Actually, I've got NL but my computer can't run it. Got the parts but my friend who knows how to install them is busy right now. I'm hoping to have it all together by next week ...

I like Castor, too. He was my favorite sim's college boyfriend and now her teenaged daughter has a crush on him. I'm considering having them get married after teen daughter graduates from college. She's popularity, her mom is romance. I can see her getting married, she's a nice girl. Not mom, though. She's nice, but definitely a flirt ... Ashley's not marriage material, in my book, though he's cute, so if I have a sim who wants to be a single mom I know who to call LOL. I agree that Heather is a bit of a bitch. I changed her look: she looks much cuter in jeans with the "wingy" haircut (not sure how to describe it, it's the one that sticks out at the sides. Looks dumb on most sims but cute on her ...). Tiffany's a nice girl but kind of boring.

My rule is, if I accidentally graduate one of the NPCs from college because they happen to share a house with my sims, then I find them a house, job, etc., and they become townies, for all intents and purposes, unless one of my sims falls in love with them. Or if I'm bored and decide to play them for a while.

Hey, does anyone know how to get sims to pledge? I had 20 friends and all the NPCs said, you don't have enough friends for me to be interested in pledging ... how many friends DO you need? 20 seemed like a lot to me! There were 5 guys living in the house, the 4 from the game and my sim ... and a lot of their friends overlapped. Now that my sim and Ashley have both graduated, those guys don't stand a chance of attracting fresh "meat." 

I have figured out a way to cheat on this. Invite NPCs to move into a regular rented house, then have the entire household join the greek house. With any luck, the NPC will be a lower classman than the player sim, so when the next gen gets to college the greek house won't be empty ... Or does it regenerate itself?

I've given up trying to banish the llama, and he's not that annoying anyway. I save my wrath for the cows. They're just so irritating ... and you always have to clean up afterwards because their favorite thing to do is throw water balloons or turn on the sprinklers in the dorms.

I agree that Brittany turned out ugly! I made her a nice party house after she graduated from college and tried to give her a makeover but every haircut I tried made her look like a man in drag. I gave her the girliest haircut and the sexiest dress I could find so she'd look more like a girl. She's in politics, but I plan for her to have a career in show biz next so she can get the plastic surgery machine. She needs it, poor girl.

I disagree that Kevin is ugly. I think he's kind of cute, in a teddybear kind of way. Maybe not so much when he turns to an adult? He's still in college in my game. He and Brittany are totally in love but she doesn't want to settle down. I plan to have Kevin marry one of my sims who will be starting college soon, once she gets out. She's not that cute (born in game, got the worst of both parents' features LOL) so their kids may be ugly but I think they'll be happy.

And that's what matters, right?

I played that Frat house and found Joshua to be a big huge jerk. He's really not very nice at all. Very self-centered and fickle. Tiffany's a nice girl. She'd be better off with his ugly brother, Martin, or with that nice Kevin Baer, who's a sweetheart. I like Kevin cuz he looks like a regular dude. He wants to marry a nice girl ...

BTW, Ashley's tons cuter with a different haircut! I think he looks kind of sleazy with the one Maxis gave him LOL.

And Awwww ... to nothingbutsims! That's so cute. I can't wait to get NL!!! My computer needs to be upgraded first, and then I'm going to take a day off from work and do nothing but play, Baby!