Introducing first baby to pets.

irsikb

Anyone else a little nervous about introducing pets to baby and baby's stuff.

I have been trying to prepare my two English bulldogs for awhile now for baby's arrival and I'm sure they will do great with baby. They love everyone else's kids, but I'm still a little nervous. I've been adamant since they were puppies about working with food and toy aggression so that's not an issue, I mean there's always a chance but I would never leave mine or anyone else little one alone with a dog, for both the safety of baby and pet. I have every confidence that I, or anyone else, could walk up and take a toy from them or reach down and pick up their food bowl mid meal. Obviously not recommended, but if I need to I can.

I'm mostly worried about the "hardware" that comes with baby more than baby itself. I've seen their reaction to their arch nemesis the swiffer, will setting up the swing, bouncer and other stuff months before baby gets here so they can acclimate to sounds and motion be enough? My dogs can't be the only ones who hate the vacuum.

I would be absolutely heartbroken if the transition didn't go smoothly.

Any tips besides being home baby blanket from the hospital before bringing baby home from hospital?

HelBelles

I have an English Bulldog and an Alaskan Malamute and I am also nervous about introducing them. They are my absolute babies now and still will be when the real baby arrives! I have been researching and googling like crazy to find out tips. Pinterest has a lot of good posts but the main ones are setting things up before the baby comes and also any changes to sleeping areas or restricting where they can and can't go in the house need to be made before too. Ours have started sleeping downstairs (instead of in bed with us) from 12 weeks pregnant and we will be putting any furniture and baby gates at least two months before due date.

Hopefully there will be some tips from ladies who have already done this to help us too

GingerTurtles

Introduce new baby gear a little at a time. Let them get used to one thing before you set up something new. Turn it on, so they can see it move, hear the noises it makes. 

There are many resources for managing pets and a new baby. Family Paws; Pet Meets Baby (free ebook); And Baby Makes Four (book).

ladybutler

We took the blanket my daughter was wrapped in and hubby introduced the dogs to it. They slept with it while we were at the hospital. It had her smell on it along with mine. We had no issues when we brought her home. They were very protective of her. We had a male boxer and female Belgium Malinois.