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Alabama Babies
four-legged babies
Hi all! Newbie here...actually, I've been lurking for a while and thought I'd finally introduce myself! I'm 12 weeks pregnant with my first child, although I do have an 8-year-old stepdaughter. Hubby and I are very excited, but I need some advice. We have two dogs (Doberman and mini dachshund) who have been our "babies" for a few years now...they are both major lap dogs, even the Doberman 
I'm afraid they're going to be jealous of a new baby. Any suggestions on how to make everything run smoothly? Thanks!
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Re: four-legged babies
No advice (sorry) but wanted to say Welcome to the board!
The Baby Blog.
Welcome and congrats! I don't have much advice, since I'm worried about the same thing with our little dog. He's a lap dog and has been our "baby" for 5 years. He's probably going to have a hard time with not being #1 anymore.
As for our big dogs, we've tried to treat them like they'll get treated by a toddler, pulling their ears, poking their eyes, pulling their tails, grabbing their food bowls while they're eating, etc. The hope is that they'll be used to this behavior and see it as "play" so they won't hurt LO once she's here.
I've been using some of baby's soap and lotion on my hands and arms so that the dogs get used to it, too, and hopefully will associate the smells of LO with me.
Dogs generally like routine and stability in there lives, therefore most have some issues adapting to a new baby.
When you start to get toys that make noises, put batteries in them and run them, just to get your dog used to the noises. Make sure the dogs know that those toys aren't there toys. Positive reinforcement works and so does redirecting there behavior.
Get them used to the smells/sights and sounds of a baby. Get a baby doll carry it around the house, use baby lotion to get them used to the smell. Also, start kind of wheening yourself from them. Start to give them there own space and kinda treat them like they'll be treated when the baby comes home.
There's CD's out there that have sounds of baby's crying and such, I would purchase one, let it play while you guys are gone. Also, get the dog to associate the sounds of the crying to you soothing the crying that way he'll know that you can stop the sound.
I'm sure there's more, but this is some of the stuff we're doing at our house to get our dogs prepared. I have a 75lb pit bull who is my "first" fourlegged baby and another pitbull/lab mix who is 60lbs that is just as big a baby, so I definitily understand where you're coming from.
Good luck and welcome to the board.
Basically we set up our nursery early, let our dog Lilly spend some time in there and we talked to her a lot about the "baby". (I know it sounds silly, but we talk to our dog constantly. She still understands more english than my DD.)
After DD was born, DH brought home a blanket with her smell on it and let Lilly sniff it, and kept saying the word "baby" while she was doing it.
When we brought DD home from the hospital, our dog was super curious and wanted to sniff her, wagging her tail. She is now super protective of DD, especially around other dogs. But, when we are at home, she lets DD chase after her and loves to eat Kennedy's leftovers (she stations herself under the high chair) but other than that, she doesn't seem to interested in DD.
natural m/c and d&c at 10 weeks - 1/24/2014
DX w/ hetero C677t and A1298C MTHFR - 3/4/2014