Sims 2: Being Pregnant
Once you have successfully impregnated your female Sim, you will want to watch her carefully until she gives birth. I have had female Sims nearly die of hunger on me before, because I wasn’t paying enough attention. (And by the way, elder female Sims cannot get pregnant. However, elder male Sims are still fertile, and can impregnate younger female Sims.) As a rule of thumb, I now make my pregnant female Sims eat before sleeping if their Hunger need is less than half full. If they get hungry while they are asleep, I will wake them up and make them eat. It takes a long time for a Sim to die of exhaustion (mostly because they will pass out involuntarily). However, a Sim can die of hunger relatively quickly. So learn from my experience, and feed ‘em up! Once your Sim has entered pregnancy, if she has a job, she will be granted three days of maternity leave. The maternity leave is granted based on when the Sim was impregnated. Linda Shin (the one who nearly starved to death) got pregnant right before her carpool arrived, so she actually worked on the first day of her pregnancy. Each of the three Sim Days corresponds to one of the three trimesters of human pregnancy. Every day when your Sim awakes, there will be a mini-cut scene and a “bwooing!” noise, as her belly magically expands. After the first such incident, she will also change into maternity clothes. 
Most Sims are struck by morning sickness at least once during pregnancy. When this happens, your Sim will race to the bathroom and vomit into the toilet. (Note: you will want to have someone clean that toilet right quick after this happens!) Some Sims spend their entire pregnancy vomiting; others only vomit once or twice. After a morning sickness incident, I usually have my Sim take a bubble bath. This helps boost their Hygeine and Comfort needs, plus - I mean, wouldn’t YOU want a bubble bath after something like that? One clothing quirk: after I installed the Seasons expansion pack, I found that my pregnant female Sim could not “change into outerwear.” It was winter at the time, so I had to watch to make sure she didn’t go outside for the next three days. I’m not sure if this is a glitch in the game, or if Seasons simply didn’t include maternity outerwear. (Honestly, she was small enough at the time, she could have fit into one of those parkas, if you ask me.) In the case of another female Sim, the fourth-generation Kana Alphabetti changed her hair style on her second day of pregnancy. I actually quite liked her “pregnant hair,” which was much cuter than her previous hair style. After she gave birth, her hair returned to her usual long braids. I haven’t seen this happen with any other female Sims, so I’m not sure how common this is. Since all of your female Sim’s needs will be dropping fast, you will have to prioritize. I generally ignore the Fun need altogether, since no one ever died of insufficient fun. When you need to bump up the Fun need, I suggest sedentary activities like watching television, reading a book, or playing a video game. Active Sims can engage in strenuous activities without hurting the baby, but since playing basketball and bowling both cut into your Sim’s energy, why make things harder on yourself? At the end of the third day, your Sim baby will be born! Stay tuned for the next installment, All About Babies.