T w e n t y S i d e d

The baby is here, the house is more or less done in time, and time can move quickly again, for both us and the new parents. The first two weeks go by as an odd liminal space. The nursery was stunning when they got to first bring their baby boy home, and it lasted all of two days. It’s still stunning underneath the tossed baby clothes and still-in-boxes baby shower gifts, but the mess isn’t the focus; Kelly and Michael are just trying to survive. They’re both young, first time parents, which is already exhausting, but they also had an odd situation. Kelly hadn’t even stepped into the house for longer than a few minutes when she came home from the hospital. She’s tired and disoriented already, let alone not knowing where the bathroom is, where the spatulas are kept, or how to turn on the shower.

Added to all of that, they got unlucky, and baby Logan is a miserable little guy, his stomach is always bloated and if he’s not sleeping, he’s crying. The nursery becomes a desperate space, furniture is moved haphazardly to make things easier, aesthetics be damned. Kelly is sleeping in the recliner next to the crib, rather than her bed, so that she doesn’t have to get out of bed sixty times a night. Michael offers repeatedly to take shifts, but Kelly is struggling to breastfeed and sleeping in the nursery feels like something she can control, Michael is turned down.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Logan”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them

The baby room is finished, the new washer and dryer are set up, and Lorretta can finally breath a sigh of relief. They did it, they managed in time, and with even time to spare. It’s five days till Kelly’s due date, and Michael is jumping every time his phone rings. He can’t stay with her at her dad’s house, which has seemed sillier and sillier a rule as she’s gotten more and more visibly pregnant. What’s he gonna do? Knock her up?

Four days from her due date, he gets the call in the middle of the night, and she’s headed to the hospital. Michael and Lorretta throw clothes into bags in a rush, and Lorretta calls her boss to let him know she won’t be making it to work that day. They arrive just in time to meet Kelly leaving the building. False alarm, the doctors are sending her home.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Last Minute Changes”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them

Lorretta and Michael only have two weeks left, and even that hinges on Kelly not going into labor before her due date. It’s Kelly’s first baby, meaning that Lorretta is hopeful they actually do have that long, if not a bit longer.

In that time, they have to finish the nursery, and ideally Lorretta would like to put in a new washer and dryer. The current appliances are rattling in an alarming way, and the washer is leaking water at random intervals with seemingly no correlation to what happens around it. If it only spat water when overloaded, or when put on a certain setting, it would be easier to live with or even implement a rushed fix. As it is, it’s simply dubbed temperamental, and will need replaced.

We haven’t been furnishing the house so far. I usually don’t furnish in these projects until I land on whatever the houses ‘current’ state is, that’s when I put in furniture and actually make the sims that live there. But…there’s new baby furniture I want to check out, so let’s do it.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: The Baby Room”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them

Our family has two months left to entirely finish the house in time for the baby to arrive. The bathroom is next, then the kitchen, then the laundry room if they have time. The bathroom is not bad, and Lorretta is tempted to keep the vintage façade…except for the moldy grout. The Sims has no good way to show it, but that pink tile was put in nearly a century ago, without ventilation, with only one bathroom to the entire house. That grout is black.

They try to save the tile by removing it carefully, but by the time the fifth one disintegrates in their hands, it’s clear that won’t be happening; this is a reno.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Tradition”

Bay Jubilee Oldest child of Shamus Young. They/Them