As most of you know, I have three cats and the question has been floating in my head for a while:
HOW DID YOUR PETS REACT TO YOUR NEW BABY?
Our cats are super curious when it comes to new things or rooms that tend to stay closed for a long time. Our future nursery is the only room in the house that hasn’t been used, since we’ve always known it’d be turned into a nursery eventually. So we keep some boxes and furniture there, along with some files- so it’s basically a storage room. It generally stays closed. But the second we go in there to find something, all three cats launch themselves into the opening of the door and proceed to sniff everything out.
I realize that after some time in that room, they’d get bored. But the day we bring a new baby into our house with its new baby smell, the cats will go crazy, I know it.
I assume it’s not really safe to let a cat sit/lie/sleep in the baby’s crib. I haven’t done much research about infants yet, mostly just pre-pregnancy and pregnancy itself. But it makes sense that you wouldn’t want pet hair and their bodies anywhere near the baby in the first few months, right?
Any experience you’d like to share about your new baby and your pets? Their reaction, their incessant need to be in the baby’s crib/bassinet? What did you do to prevent that? And also once your baby was able to sit and play, how did they interact with the pets?
I’d love to hear your stories!
Oh and I am sorry I haven’t been to all of your blogs recently. I am going to catch up today.
Also I will be making a BOOK PAGE, where I’ll psot a list of all the pre-conception and pregnancy books I’ve read or am reading for those who might be interested. It should be quite an interesting list.
When we had our first son, we had 3 cats. Cleopatra, Caesar, and Bella. Cleopatra was our very first cat we got together after we got married so she was like an only child for a while. She was very attached to my husband and I mean VERY! Like clingy! After we had Antonio, she wasn’t coping well. She would pee on his clothes and we would find her sneaking real creepy like into his room. We just didn’t trust her and we had to get rid of her. She was very jealous of the baby. The other two could have cared less. We still have them and added a dog to the mix!
It actually helps your baby to NOT have allergies to have pets! So you don’t need to keep the hair etc away from them. The only thing you would need to worry about is scratching and possibly smothering if the cats try to sleep on the baby in the crib. But I’m pretty sure that would be rare. We got our nursery ready and then let our cat have at it for the few months before the baby came. She explored and slept and then got used to it. She freaked tho when we brought home Nate. When he would cry she would howl and pace. She was so upset by us being up all night and was super confused. She finally got used to him and settled down and then he started crawling/walking/running and chasing her and that freaked her out a lot. When we had Mia she totally lost it. Started peeing all over, including in our bed. I was sleeping in our bed with Mia with me when she was 2 weeks old and woke up to a huge puddle next to me. Not cool. We ended up having to get rid of her because she absolutely hated Mia. Which was so weird because Mia was premie and literally slept 20 hours a day for the first 2 months and made no noise! Anyway, you absolutely cannot predict how your cats will react. They may be indifferent, they may be obsessed and they may be pissed. But I would definitely not try to keep them away from the bassinet and crib because you know that just makes them want it more! haha. I would let them get used to it in advance. Good luck! Hopefully because you have more than one cat, they will band together and not get as jealous.
We have two cats: Dexter and Abby. Neither caused any issues regarding the baby. Abby is standoffish and does her own thing so she really paid no attention to Jackson. Dexter is more mischievous and loves attention. When we came home with Jackson Dexter sat on the edge of the sofa and just stared. Neither peed on anything nor tried to sleep on the baby. Now Jackson is almost two. He does chase the cats but they usually just run away. At times Dexter will “play” and smack at Jackson but he does not have front claws so no big deal (he was declawed for other reasons prior to us having a child)
I have also read that having pets may reduce the risk of a child developing allergies
Oh that’s good to know! We love our kitties so much I’d hate for them to start having issues!
We had two dogs before our baby. I was worried as well, especially because one of my dogs was very attached and territorial of me. Any time my husband goes in for a hug, he growls, and will pull on his pant legs to try and get him away from me..it’s pretty comical! BUT,there are a lot of things you can do for cats and dogs to prepare them for your baby coming home (congrats btw, I’m a little late)! 🙂 Like, having your husband bring home a blanket the baby was swaddled in, in the hospital, let the pets get used to the smell, etc. Leave the nursery door open. Let them adjust to the new furniture. Spend time with them in there so they feel comfortable in the new setting BEFORE the baby gets added to the mix. One of our dogs was instantly attached to our baby. He would lay by her crib every second she was in there. He’d even climb on the rocker and side table to lean over and “watch” her in the crib. As soon as she was old enough to play, they were awesome with her. Now, she’s only 18 months, and she can sure be rough with them..pulling tails, ears, throwing things at them and giggling…the pups are so good with her, never had an issue. I am sure your cats will be the same. Just make sure they get a little TLC from you (my vet recommended 5 minutes of you and pet play every day) to make sure they don’t feel abandoned and have negative feelings towards your baby for that reason. Good luck!