Pets and the nursery

dragonfly711 · April 2014

My 2 dogs and 3 cats will have free reign but will have door closed when no one is in nursery. The major issue I know that we will have is my golden likes to steal things. He will take socks ect so I know he will take toys or any baby cloths. That is my only real concern.

gregsgurl81304 · April 2014

Nope, she has free roam.

MollySm · April 2014

We will keep the cats out of the nursery when we aren't in there, and do the same for my daughter's room. They occasionally pee on things - it's rare but they do it - and one of them likes to eat things (shirts, dinosaur bath toys, etc.). So it's just easier than dealing with possible issues when we're not there.

sparklenshine_89 · April 2014

Some of you ladies already know my situation but to those who don't... We live in our RV. It's pretty big but compared to a house/apartment it's small. My two boys share the back room and our bulldog stays in there with them. When we have this baby he will be going in that room as well. And I can't kick my dog out. She's seriously the best trained/behaved dog ever. Plus, she is amazing with my boys... they can wrestle her and she won't do anything back. She just turned 1 so to me it's really impressive. She won't be in there all the time but she will definitely be in there.

colllydon · April 2014

Holly's new favorite hangout is under the crib. I'm okay with it though. It's a lot of change and I just want her to get used to things slowly.

babygabe614 · April 2014

dragonfly711 said:

We have two cats and we probably won't discourage them from going in. They're terrified of pretty much everyone besides DH and I so I'm definitely not worried about them jumping in the crib or even wanting to be anywhere near baby. My only hesitation is we have one male and I worry he'll get territorial when we bring her home and I don't want him marking anywhere in there.
@babygabe614 You can get something called Feliway. Put one in the nursery now if he is allowed to go in it. It is a pheromone that helps cats with anxiety and inappropriate urination. It can take a bit for it to work There is a plug in ir spray. I like the plug in.

Thank you! I've never heard of that!

nikki0808 · April 2014

babygabe614 said:

dragonfly711 said:

babygabe614 said:
We have two cats and we probably won't discourage them from going in. They're terrified of pretty much everyone besides DH and I so I'm definitely not worried about them jumping in the crib or even wanting to be anywhere near baby. My only hesitation is we have one male and I worry he'll get territorial when we bring her home and I don't want him marking anywhere in there.
@babygabe614

You can get something called Feliway. Put one in the nursery now if he is allowed to go in it. It is a pheromone that helps cats with anxiety and inappropriate urination. It can take a bit for it to work There is a plug in ir spray. I like the plug in.

Thank you! I've never heard of that!

Our cat had a hard time adjusting to me going to third shift when she was a kitten and was having diarrhea everywhere. We got that plug in and it worked. So I agree, it will help. :-)

tclayton53 · April 2014

He can't wait for her to arrive! No keeping him out - he's much too attached to the people in his life.

kittenslove · April 2014

Right now keeping the two cats out due to hair. Baby will be in our room at first, and they are allowed in our room, but I just can't keep up with the hair. We are getting them groomed though, and that usually helps (we do it every spring and summer, but I am usually the one to do it. They are okay with women washing and combing them, but freak out if they see a guy with their brush). I am sure eventually they will be in the babies room, but not until winter when the shedding calms down. Honestly though,I don't think they will mind. We have opened a new floor to them, and are building a huge climbing tree for them in the basement. The only thing they can do in the nursery involve making messes.

shellyb313 · April 2014

Hi! We'll most likely let our dog into the baby room, but for now only when we are with her and then when our baby arrives we'll supervise until we feel she (our dog) won't get into the baby's things, etc.

darkangel42 · April 2014

The dog doesn't go upstairs (where baby will sleep) so not an issue.

We have 3 cats though and I do not feel like trying to herd them. I vacuum the bedding often with a hand-held for the hair (myself and DH are mildly allergic to cat hair) so will just do that for the crib too.

As it happens, one cat detests anyone under about 4ft tall and stays well clear of short people and anything that smells like a child has been near it. She's the worst shedder so this works out well.

Another cat only has 3 legs and can't jump up to get in the crib even if she wanted to, which she won't because she's afraid of everyone and everything apart from the dog who she lives with downstairs (they share a bed, it's adorable).

The third cat does as he pleases, doesn't shed much and is the most laid-back animal in the universe. He loves kids and will take hours of abuse from my 3 year old nephew before he's had enough and leaves. He's not a lap cat, he'll sleep near but not on people. I'd rather he didn't do that to the baby but I very much doubt he will. Once he's investigated the baby things and the baby, he'll probably be fine and leave well alone as he's normally glued to my side anyway.

I've had cats my whole life, actually adopted my first one because my aunt didn't want her to smother the new baby She was such a sweet, gentle cat that she would sit beside the crib and 'guard' babies.

The next cat I had a few months before DD arrived absolutely loved her (even though that cat was insanely vicious and would savage anyone else who got too close) and never so much as raised a paw against the baby and would lay down near, but not touching, her to make sure she was ok. She also attacked any men who got too close to baby, which can be something to watch out for. Some cats just don't like men near 'their' babies, apparently.

The cats will always be supervised around the baby and my shadow cat will be watched in the room but I don't foresee any major issues if they're properly introduced to each other.

Trying to shoo them out would just make them want to go in there more because they're a contrary lot so I've been rewarding good behavior like sniffing baby things without climbing on them and things like that while still allowing them time to get used to the changed room and baby gear so they don't freak out when the baby is actually in there.

lola4411 · April 2014

@tclayton53‌ our bulldogs are twins! I find him just sitting in the nursery too

lest12 · April 2014

@lola4411 & @tclayton53 - I don't know which one of those pics is cuter.

lola4411 · April 2014

lest12 said:

@lola4411 & @tclayton53 - I don't know which one of those pics is cuter.

its gotta be a tie

rastrau · April 2014

dragonfly711 said:

We have two cats and we probably won't discourage them from going in. They're terrified of pretty much everyone besides DH and I so I'm definitely not worried about them jumping in the crib or even wanting to be anywhere near baby. My only hesitation is we have one male and I worry he'll get territorial when we bring her home and I don't want him marking anywhere in there.
@babygabe614 You can get something called Feliway. Put one in the nursery now if he is allowed to go in it. It is a pheromone that helps cats with anxiety and inappropriate urination. It can take a bit for it to work There is a plug in ir spray. I like the plug in.

The Feliway is great - if your cat is susceptible to the pheromones. My geriatric diabetic asshole male cat scoffed at the Feliway and continued to pee in a particular corner, on our hardwood floor. The best solution I ultimately found for him was called Sssscat - it's just a can of compressed air with a motion sensor that startles the cat out of the area when they wander in. The one I used had an optional beeping noise when it went off, but I just linked to the first one I saw on Amazon.

Hgual · April 2014

We have been keeping the door closed while not in there but mainly due to the nursery still being in transition and set up. The dogs will be allowed in with us at first until I know they can be trusted to not get into things and then have free reign. Personally I'd like to keep the cats out till baby is here because I don't think they're going to want anything to do with him. But this will probably be a losing battle seeing as they've already instantly followed me in a few times to check out why the room is different.

Ahug77 · April 2014

shellbell813 said:
I plan to keep my cat out of the nursery at first. I read that it can be an issue if they jump into the crib to cuddle, they can accidentally suffocate baby. Basically since this is our first and we have no idea how she will react, any interaction at first will be closely monitored.

Same!

darkangel42 · April 2014

Ahug77 said:

I plan to keep my cat out of the nursery at first. I read that it can be an issue if they jump into the crib to cuddle, they can accidentally suffocate baby. Basically since this is our first and we have no idea how she will react, any interaction at first will be closely monitored.
Same!

Cats don't smother babies, this is an old wives tale. They may climb in the crib to investigate and will probably try to sleep on the warm spot when you take the baby out but most cats are not interested in getting close enough to a newborn to sleep on them.

They may sometimes sleep near them, for the warmth, but that's about it and can be easily/quickly trained out of doing that.

lellymine · April 2014

darkangel42 said:

Ahug77 said:

shellbell813 said:
I plan to keep my cat out of the nursery at first. I read that it can be an issue if they jump into the crib to cuddle, they can accidentally suffocate baby. Basically since this is our first and we have no idea how she will react, any interaction at first will be closely monitored.
Same!

Cats don't smother babies, this is an old wives tale. They may climb in the crib to investigate and will probably try to sleep on the warm spot when you take the baby out but most cats are not interested in getting close enough to a newborn to sleep on them.

They may sometimes sleep near them, for the warmth, but that's about it and can be easily/quickly trained out of doing that.

Not always old wives tale. My parents cat is extremely laid back, he'll let kids paw at him for hours. He also crawls on top of people when they sleep and then he naps there. He's 15lbs so we'll definitely be keeping baby and him separate when the baby naps at my parent's home.

Pepper6 · April 2014

Our cat likes laying under the crib sometimes, but otherwise she's pretty disinterested in the nursery unless we're in there too. I did put her in the crib a few weeks ago to see how she'd react, she laid down while I was standing there, but didn't like it when I walked away, so I'm not concerned about her trying to get in there when the baby is in there.

Want a personalized experience?

Pets and the nursery

Re: Pets and the nursery

Choose Another Board

Search Boards