2) Before you get pregnant
a) financial concerns
b) child care
3) How to get pregnant
a) Male-Female
b) Male-Male/Female-Female (coming soon, haven't made homosexual couples yet)
4) Okay, so now I'm pregnant, now what?
a)time spent pregnant
b)pregnancy stages
c)pregnant sim's needs
d)interaction with the pregnant sim
e)the birth
5) Genetics
a) Dominant vs recessive genes
6) Wait, this baby is an actual character!! What to do?!
a) furnature
b) interaction
c) needs
d) growth
e) social services
7) Thanks and whatnot
This is the guide to Pregnancy and Baby Care in The Sims 2,
as it is different from what it was in The Sims, and may confuse some people.
Please E-Mail me at Terulian_Maveric [at] yahoo [dot] com
(replace [at] with @ and [dot] with a .(period)) if you have corrections,
contributions, or questions. Please include "Sims 2 pregnancy guide" or
something similar in the subject line, as if I don't know who you are and the
subject line doesn't look right, I assume the e-mail contains either a virus
or is spam and mark it as such. If you contribute to the guide you'll be
recognized in the section you contributed to and in the "thanks" section to
the guide. This guide is the property of me, and as such, cannot be reproduced
or re-posted without my permission. This guide, as of this version, was made
exclusively for GameFAQs.com. If you come across it at any other website,
please e-mail me letting me know, following the same guidelines for the
subject line as with a query (Sims 2 pregnancy guide somewhere in there).
Generally, if you ask me, I won't have a problem with you posting this guide
on your site or on any other site as long as you ask me first.
Maxis owns all copyrights to The Sims, The Sims 2, and all other programs
thereof, and I had nothing to do with the game.
Version 1.0
-Created Guide, released Thursday, September 23
Version 1.2 (Friday, December 17)
- Updated some sections, as seen under the sections
- Did the Social Security section with help from Owen 006
Section 1
Pregnancy? In the Sims?
As odd as this may sound, yes. In the origional sims, you used to be able
to just make the sims kiss, and a baby would pop out of nowhere in a
flowery explosion of cribs. But in this, you must actually take more
steps in becoming pregnant. Here I plan on guiding you and your sims
through the processes of getting pregnant,getting through the pregnancy,
and taking care of the baby in its infancy. And, just for the record,
give a basic lesson on genetics so that you have some idea of what to
expect the baby to look like.
Section 2
Before you get pregnant
a) financial concerns
You have to have a good financial situation to have a baby, just as in real
life. I would suggest having at LEAST 5000 simoleons on hand to purchace the
things you'll need for the baby. I recommend having 10000 just in case.
Unlike in The Sims, you must use food from the refrigerator to feed the
baby, so food costs are an issue. You must also buy a crib for the baby,
and eventually you need to have it it's own room.
b) child care
The Sims 2 has a Nanny service that you can order on the phone, but they
cost money (10 dollars plus 15 dollars per hour), plus there are advantages
to interacting with the baby yourself (see section 6), so I personally
don't recommend a nanny, but the downside is that you must have at least one
sim stay at home, unemployed to take care of the baby.
UPDATE: I have been informed that you will get maternity leave once you have
the baby, so you shouldn't worry about having that unemployed sim.
Section 3
How to get pregnant
a) Male-Female.
In The Sims, you could have a baby in one way : kissing until they asked if
they should have a baby. In the Livin' Large expansion of the game, they
added the Vibromatic Love Bed, which allowed your sims to "Play In Bed".
You could then have a baby from that if you did it too often.
In the Sims 2, I'm not sure if kissing still works, though I'm
pretty sure it doesn't (will try to see if it does and update in a later
version), and there's no vibromatic love bed. So how to have a baby?!
Well, the people at Maxis gave you the vibromatic love bed in every bed
essentially. You can now relax on every bed. If 2 sims (preferably who are
in love) are on the same bed, they can interact with certain commands.
These commands are "Cuddle" "Make out" "WooHoo", and "Try for Baby".
It's this last command that is the key. You must try for a baby.
It will give an animation reminiscent of Sims 1 love bed "lumps moving
under the cover", and your sims will come out with a higher fun rating
than they had. And, as an added side note,in The Sims 2, "WooHoo" and
"Try for baby" doesn't take as much away from your stats as "Play in Bed"
did in Livin' Large.
Update: You can only get a baby by "try for baby", and you can only get
"Try for Baby" if you have 2 sims who want a baby
b) Male-Male/Female-Female.
There is a rumor that you can get same-sex couples to impregnate one
another in this game. While I haven't tested this, I intend to soon.
If you have, please E-Mail me using the guidelines in Section 0 and
you'll get credit in this section.
UPDATE : It has been playtested by me and countless others who have
E-Mailed me that you can't get the same-sex couples to
"Try for Baby". There is, however a way to get males pregnant. You
need a telescope, and you need to have him stargaze at night. He
will get abducted (with some luck), and the aliens will impregnate
him.
Section 4
Okay, so I'm pregnant, now what?
a) time spent pregnant
I found that my female sim (based off of my wonderful fiance), was
pregnant for about 10 sim-days (240 realtime minutes) before giving
birth to our beautiful baby girl Naomi
UPDATE : This is a huge thing that I was wrong about. Sim-Mothers
spend 3 days (1 per trimester) pregnant, maybe a bit more. For
this guide's sake, we say 3-4 days of pregnancy, so 72 realtime
minutes. I apologise for this, as I was pulling an all-nighter
to write this guide, and was skipping around, and this was the
last section I did.
b) Pregnancy Stages
There are, as in real life, 3 stages in pregnancy. These are shown
more rapidly in the sims, however, and you'll get a mini-cutscene,
showing the pregnant sim's stomach grow in bursts after a nights
sleep usually. As her stomach grows, her mood swings and her needs
increase. In the first stage, your sim will get morning sickness,
and vomit alot, and a thought will appear with a pacifier and a
question mark above their head. Then, their stomach will be slightly
expanded, and they'll start to walk differently. At this point,
they'll also start to wear maternity clothes. After that their
stomach keeps expanding until the delivery (see sub-section e in
this section)
c) Pregnancy sim's needs
In general, the pregnant sim will have their Energy, Bladder,
and Hunger decrease more rapidly. This is a mild increase
during the first stages, but gets to be more and more noticable
with the later stages. Near the time of delivery, it may be
difficult to fufil your sim's other needs, particularly fun and
hygene. Hygene is easier than fun, while the other needs can be
taken care of while taking care of the other 3 (social and comfort
while eating, comfort while sleeping). Try and set aside some time
for your pregnant sim to have fun, but remember: they're pregnant.
Don't have them do anything too strenuous. I'm not sure if strenuous
activity has any adverse effects on the pregnancy, but I wouldn't
take chances, this is a baby afterall.
UPDATE : Strenuous activity has no adverse effects on the baby
that I can see. So feel free to have your sim mom play basketball.
d) Interacting with the pregnant sim
The pregnant sim will usually be grouchy, as their needs are harder
to fufil. However, when they are in a good mood, there are a few
actions you can only do while they're pregnant. These are under the
new tab "pregnancy" when you click on your pregnant sim. You can have
another sim rub their stomach, or have them listen to it. I haven't
gotten my pregnant sim in a good enough mood to allow it yet, so if
you want to send descriptions of the animations, please feel free,
and I may include them in the guide.
e) The birth
After all the pregnancy, the game will go to a cutscene, in which the
pregnant sim stands, and starts holding its stomach, and moaning. Then
it shows the sims select arrow twitching and sprinkling magic dust stuff,
and then it splits into 2 arrows with one being smaller, then you see a
picture of your sim mother(using mother as the term for the one that
carried the baby) with your new baby in their arms. When it goes back to
the normal view, it will ask you for a name, and the default name will be
Baby (Boy/Girl). The parents will have the coveted Platinum Mood for about
1-2 days after the birth, but only after the first birth.
UPATE : This cutscene only happens in the DVD version of the game, as I
learned while playing at my girlfriend's house... or maybe she just
didn't get the cutscenes on that disk or something. Either way, for now
I'm gonna say that cutscenes only happen on the DVD version.
Section 5
Genetics
Okay, a break from game mechanics to have a brief science lesson. This
baby will have characteristics based on your parent sims. Using this
lesson, you can predict how your sims might turn out. Physical traits
are caused by genes and chromosones. There are about 46 genes, and they
are arranged in sets of 2, so there are 23 gene set. Each sex cell has
23 single chromosones, carrying one of the 2 chromosones that that
particular parent had. Now, you may think "well, if one sim had blue
eyes, and one had brown eyes, how am I gonna know which my kid will have?".
That can be explained VIA Dominant vs. Recessive. To do this, we must use
Mendel's box (at least I think that's what this thing is called)
(UPDATE : It is called a Punnett Square). Now, every
possible thing for a gene has a gene that is dominant and a gene that is
recessive. I'm sure it has to be a bit more complex than just Dominant vs.
Recessive, but this is the extent of my knowledge. As an example, we take
Blue eyes versus Brown eyes. In this case, brown eyes are the dominant trait,
and blue eyes are the recessive trait. The recessive vs. Dominant traits are
represented with lowercase letters for recessive, and uppercase letters
for dominant traits. In ANY case, if a dominant gene is present,
it will take precidence. This makes the sim parent with a dominant feature,
such as brown eyes, the X factor in the guessing game. So if we take a sim
with blue eyes, and a sim with brown eyes we have this :
Parent 1 : BB (brown eyed) or Bb (brown eyed with a blue recessive gene)
Parent 2 : bb (blue eyed)
To see the chances of a Blue Eyed Baby, we must use a Mendel Grid. It is
always, for this, a 2X2 grid. This grid is labeled on each axis with a
sim's genes. For this example, we'll use the Bb sim for the brown eyed
parent, and the bb parent for blue eyed.
P2
B b
---------
P | | |
b| Bb | bb | BB = Brown-eyed
1 | | | Bb = Brown-eyed
|---------| bb = Blue-eyed
| | |
b| Bb | bb |
| | |
---------
So you have a 50% 50% chance with that combo. But what if the brown-eyed
parent has no recessive blue-eyed gene?
P2
B B
---------
P | | |
b| Bb | Bb |
1 | | |
|---------|
| | |
b| Bb | Bb |
| | |
---------
So you have no chance of a blue-eyed child, but if they (the child) marry
someone with blue eyes, they have the chances above of a blue-eyed child.
One more case to look at is 2 Bb parents.
P2
B b
---------
P | | |
B| BB | Bb |
1 | | |
|---------|
| | |
b| Bb | bb |
| | |
---------
So with those parents, you have a 75:25 ratio of brown:blue eyed children,
with 1/3 of the brown eyed children having no blue eyed genes.
So now you know how to chart, but it's worthless if you can't determine the
dominant or recessive genes. But fortunately, that's usually the simple
part. As a rule of thumb, dominant traits are darker ones. So a darker
complexion, eye color, or hair color will be a dominant trait. Some
examples:
Brown Hair : Dominant
Blonde Hair : Recessive
Tongue Rolling : Recessive
If you do some research, you can find out some lists of dominant versus
recessive traits. If I find a good list and get permission to use it,
I'll put it up on the FAQ.
Section 6
Wait, this baby is an actual character!! What to do?!
a) furnature
You need to buy your baby a crib, and preferably a changing table so
dirty diapers don't lie around. In the "rooms" listing of things,
there is a teddy-bear icon that is for "kids". This icon is also
under some categories of items, like Misc. This is where you can get
things for your baby. Note that as a baby, it cannot play with toys.
It must turn into a toddler first.
b) interaction
Interaction plays more of a role in The Sims 2 than shutting the baby up.
You can pick up the baby, and from there, you can play with it, cuddle it,
or put it back down. When you cuddle or play with your baby, your
relationship with it grows, just like when you interact with
an adult sim. You can also do some other things with the baby.
Some things that can be done both when the baby's in it's crib and
when it's in your arms include feeding and changing. Generally,
your sims will feed the baby on their own (at least my sims did), but they
will sometimes develop a fear of changing a dirty diaper. So should a sim
be home without that fear, have them do it rather than the one with the fear
(fears randomize at the start of each day unless you have one locked). Some
things can only be done when the baby is in the crib. These include
tucking it in (only when sleeping) and letting it out. Yes, you
can have the baby on the floor, though it has little effect when your baby
is a baby. This comes into play more when it's a toddler. You can also
use the sink or the tub to bathe your baby
UPDATE : Through the vast number of e-mails, I seem to remember one that
stated that they couldn't wash their baby in the sink, and only had a shower.
I think the outcome was that the baby can only be washed in a sink that
is built into a counter, not one of the stand-alone sinks.
c) needs
Your baby has the same basic needs as an adult sims, it just takes care
of a few differently. Your baby will cry when it needs something.
It's your and your sims job to figure out the need.Some are simple,
like changing the diaper, because a green "ewww cloud" as I call them will
come out of the diaper. Your sims, the mother in particular, seem to be
in tune with the baby's needs when it cries, though some lazier sims may
need you to wake them when baby cries if baby cries when they're asleep.
d) growth
As your baby reaches about a week old, it will tell you it's it's birthday,
and it will grow to a toddler. The magical dust will sprinkle from the green
arrow, and the baby will turn into a toddler, which is the first stage in which
you can select them as a character.
Update: This stage was also over-extended in the guide. They're babies for
about 3 days before they become toddlers.
e) Social Services
The Social Services do come into play in this guide. I recieved an e-mail
recently that basically gave ways to keep your kids. I should note that
if your kids are snatched by Social in this game, you can't "try for baby"
anymore. You also can't adopt after Social comes. Social, from what I've
heard, won't come for teenagers, only Children or younger.
This is an e-mail copied directly, from Owen 006 (oblinn@gmail.com)
Hello,
I was cruising GameFaqs and I saw your guide. I saw that you don't
know about the social service guys. They're pretty much the same as in
the Sims 1, here's a quick mini-guide to 'em
1) Feed your babies!
If your baby, toddler or child sim hasn't had any food in about 2
days, or if his/her Hunger stat is fully red, then you will be
prompted to "Feed that sim fast!" otherwise social services will swing
by within the day. This doesn't apply to Teenage sims as they can cook
for themselves.
2) Don't leave your kids alone!
If you leave a baby, toddler, or child sim by themselves without a
Nanny while at work, you will recieve a warning saying that you
shouldn't leave your child alone, and very quickly a social services
person will come and take your child. However, you can fight back at
this: while the social services person is about to arrive or has just
arrived: move out then move back in. I discovered this by accident
because when the nanny started cooking, she started a fire and killed
herself. I didn't notice she died untill to late :(
3) No adults around.
If a baby, toddler or child sim's parent(s) die and is at the house
without any adults, social services will pick them up and the house
will be abandoned. However, teenage sims can live by themselves if the
adults die. I found this out because the parent sim that had no
cooking skill didn't like the sim with full cooking skill to cook and
set the house on fire. (I really need to turn off free will)
Section 7
Thanks and whatnot
Thanks to Maxis for making The Sims and The Sims 2
Thanks to Amber for being my inspiration *hugs his Amber*
Thanks to me for being bored enought to write this
Thanks to GameFAQs for accepting this (if they do)
Thanks to Owen 006 and other e-mailers for their contributuions
(I'll compile a list of addys and get everyone accredited for, I
promise)
Thanks for your feedback and letting me know how to make it better.
