I was bounced. (pets and prepping for baby)

celette482 · February 2016

My 7 pound cat used my stomach as a launchpad at about 3 AM this morning in her chase game with her brother. I'm not terribly worried, since it didn't hurt and if I can't take that level of impact, I don't know how our ancestors did field work while 5 weeks. (also no cramping or bleeding. shrug) But it did give me a wave of nausea, so now cats are banned from the bedroom. They were going to be banned anyway, when it was closer to baby, but they lost their privileges. They are singing me the song of their people now. any other FTMs prepping fur babies for human babies?

missmaehurt · February 2016

I have two elderly dogs so I'll definitely be doing plenty of research on introduction between baby and them. They're pretty chill cause they're old, but one loves to cuddle 24/7 so I'm not sure how he'll take it. He does seem extra cautious when he climbs on my lap now (he's 75 lbs so I'm always attentive to where he's stepping).

JamieK1882 · February 2016

Not a FTM but my two cats were super helpful last night when I was up with DD for 45 minutes at midnight (wrestling in her room, hiding under crib etc) and then meowing once we were all asleep again. Personally all we do is shut LOs door at night. Other than that we give them free range of the house and it's never been an issue.

celette482 · February 2016

We're a bit more cramped in an apartment right now. Hoping to move to house within the next year. Right now the plan is for baby to sleep in our room because we have no other place for it.

br0co1ii · February 2016

celette482 said:

We're a bit more cramped in an apartment right now. Hoping to move to house within the next year. Right now the plan is for baby to sleep in our room because we have no other place for it.

This is our plan too. Our pets aren't terribly annoying at night, so hopefully we can be one big happy family! We plan on using a bedside bassinet as long as possible.

jade24422 · February 2016

One of my four cats did the same thing to me last week. I was nervous too but no problems. We are definitely going to be prepping them over these next 8ish months. They won't be allowed in the nursery or in our bedroom at first when the baby is sleeping in a bassinet with us, but eventually will be able to move about more freely in our room once the baby is a little older. I'm a little nervous about how they will react but they are all good natured so I'm sure it will be fine in time!

PrimRoseMama · February 2016

Lolz at song of their people. Silly furs.

LauraPCOS · February 2016

I have 3 cats and a 90lbs dog. The dog won't let me out of her sight and if I get up to pee, she follows me into the bathroom. One of my cats is a senior and isn't very snugglely so I'm not concerned about her, one of my younger cats is skittish and only wants attention on her terms, again not concerned about her, but my one cat is brassin and will come walk on you or try to steal your food like she owns the place and will come lay on you. She is the one I'm concerned about so we have to start getting her used to doors closed which she does NOT like. The dog doesn't like doors closed either, it freaks her out not being where the humans are.

AverageAsh · February 2016

One of my mutts spent the entirety of my last pregnancy parked on my belly. It was so bizarre. While I labored at home she stood between my feet and snapped at anyone that tried to touch me (we took her out of the home for the remainder). Once the baby was born she avoided me like the plague! It was so bizarre! She's back to her womb guarding ways so at least I know what to expect this time

owlcup · February 2016

My big fat cat loves walking all over me/ laying on my belly at night. Especially when I forget to feed her. Then she'll also "mew mew mew" ever so softly in my face. I'm not worried about her hurting the baby at all, but dang if it isn't annoying and makes me sick having all the pressure on my stomach.

rhallats · February 2016

I have a big ole lab I'll be prepping at some point in the second tri. I foster dogs from time to time so I know how she reacts when she doesn't get all the attention, and we will be working on that. Unfortunately that means I need to kinda dial back all the love so she can get used to the new normal and not resent baby. Or rather, time to find ways to do thing we can all do together to show love like long walks.

LGW2015 · February 2016

We have a 7 month old lab mix (50 lbs so far) who is the NEEDIEST of all the pups. Has to be by our side and have our full attention at all times. I'm pretty worried about the rude awakening he'll have. They say to slowly limit the attention you give them close to due date so they get more used to it, and to start varying the schedule (feeding, potty, walks, etc) so it's not too much of an adjustment.

But we did throw him in bed with us the other night so he'd go back to sleep after he woke up throwing up (apparently he has acid reflux and needs snacks throughout the night lolz). Of course he did nothing but stretch out kicking me in the stomach the whole night.

SuperKristy85 · February 2016

Im actually giving my cat away (to my mom so Ill still get to see her). She has developed a fun habit of popping on our bed at all time sin the day. She will either hide it under the covers during the day as a surprise or will even do it during the night while we were sleeping. I just cant get her to stop but I don't think she has ever been happy with us anyway and my mom wants to take her so I'm letting her

I also have a small dog and a large dog that we will have to get accustomed to baby life.

annabenanna · February 2016

We have one cat who is 1... we named her Frankie. (profile pic!

I haven't thought about how to prep her yet for the baby. Not worried about her harming the baby at all, but she does have her crazy cat moments where she just bolts from room to room and pounces on everything!

MrsHudson2014 · February 2016

I have a 5 year old Boston Terrier. I'm going to have to find some ways to get her ready for baby because right now, she is the baby! She is used to sleeping on the floor, and can't make it into the bed, so that's not an issue. But, she is pawsy, and jumpy, and energetic.

purelex · February 2016

SuperKristy85 said:

Im actually giving my cat away (to my mom so Ill still get to see her). She has developed a fun habit of popping on our bed at all time sin the day. She will either hide it under the covers during the day as a surprise or will even do it during the night while we were sleeping. I just cant get her to stop but I don't think she has ever been happy with us anyway and my mom wants to take her so I'm letting her

I also have a small dog and a large dog that we will have to get accustomed to baby life.

Just a thought, but cats that urinate/defecate in inappropriate places (i.e. anywhere but the litter box) may have a medical problem, such as an infection or something. It may be worth a vet visit... could also be something behavioral like you moved the litter box, there arent enough litter boxes, you switched litters, it is too dirty, or something else that changed and she doesn't like it. I would hate for you to have to give away your pet if it is something fixable, although your mom is a good option, at least!

We have 3 energetic German Shepherds that like to jump around (not necessarily ON anything, just near me) when excited and the two males always act attention starved. The cats I am not so worried about but DH is because he is afraid they will try to lay on the baby and they are able to push open the door to our bedroom. We definitely have some things to work on in the coming months

mrsman2018 · February 2016

We have two cats who are basically the boss of the place. They are very annoying starting around 4 am. They sleep on the bed with us, and if we lock them out, they are loud and annoying. We have talked about giving them to family, but we would feel like bad cat parents.

artcheese · February 2016

We have a 4 year old dog. He's kind of skittish by nature so I was worried about how he'd do. Whenever my friends babies would come over he was great. When a walking toddler would, he'd be scared and run. Luckily he is really tolerant with DS and so much less skittish then he used to be.

i do suggest anyone with dogs to actually read up on signs dogs make to determine how your dog is handling the new addition.

Piperella · February 2016

@SuperKristy85 - Cat's will also defecate where there is down or feathers in bedding. They don't like the smell of it. I always wondered why I had one cat always messing the bed. We changed our pillows and comforter out to down alternatives and haven't had an issue since. My husband was a pet trainer for a number of years and that was one of the first things I learned...

We have 3 cats and 2 dogs. One dog had food aggression and can be irritable. We have been working on boundaries with her, but know we will need to come up with better structure once the baby starts crawling and walking. I have one cat that is glued to my belly, and I'm looking forward to the day he is kicked in the head by the baby. I've been trying to think of creative ways to keep the pets out of the baby's room as much as possible. We got one of those magnetic door screens, but we have one cat that has already figured out that he can just walk through it.. lol. The dogs haven't a clue.

queen_frostine · February 2016

Our guinea pig, if she lives long enough to meet the new baby, obviously wouldn't be a problem. Our cat... not sure. Usually she wakes us up at some point in the night and annoys us and gets locked in the utility room. Our bedroom door currently doesn't close all the way because of the way the house settled, so we'll have to get our house fixed if we want to really lock her out of it (but not in a specific other room.) She's a devil - I'm not sure how to train her because she really does what she wants, but we trained her from a kitten to be nice to the guinea pigs, so maybe we can convince her the baby is just a loud, big, bald guinea pig.

purelex · February 2016

so maybe we can convince her the baby is just a loud, big, bald guinea pig.

lol, good luck with that! I feel like she may figure out that's not the case once the baby starts pulling on her tail

jbal918 · February 2016

We have 3 cats that we definitely are going to need to prep! My oldest, Jem, has severe anxiety. My middle, Daphne is super attached to me and I think she will get jealous! She smacks me in the middle of the night to sleep right next to me or in between my husband and I. Our youngest, Hailey, is a cuddler and probably will have be the reason I will need to get the anti-cat netting for the babies crib!

blaf322 · February 2016

The pet thing is actually a huge stress for me. My little dog LOVES babies but our larger dog is very scared of children and when he's scared, he goes to fight, not flight... so there's a good chance he'll bite. I'm pretty sure we're going to have to give him away to a child-free family. Fortunately, my husband's parents will take him but I kind of want to find him a different home. I just think that if we have to give him away, seeing him is going to be too hard for me.

itravelsize · February 2016

I have a 4 year old jack russell mix she is very energetic but has done amazing with all her encounters with little ones from friends and family visiting us so I don't think it will be too big of a problem. We will also be moving to a new place and i think that will make it easier to set boundaries like her not being allowed in the baby room or anything like that since its not a place she is familiar with. I also started doing research on how to introduce her to baby I hate when baby books/websites make things so harsh on the fur baby after all she is still my baby so i want to ease her into it and reduce stress on her as well as me.

booksandicecream · February 2016

We have a 45-pound Golden Retriever who is in the running for World's Cuddliest Dog who often does the drop-and-cuddle, meaning he stands next to you then just falls on top of you into a pile of cuddles. I have absolutely no concern that he will be aggressive toward baby in any way, but I am concerned he is going to try to pull the drop-and-cuddle on my 8-pound infant! Because we live in a small apartment, my current plan is to set up the bedside bassinet and a baby rug in the living room a few weeks ahead of time and designate them as no-dog zones.

celette482 · February 2016

So, update. We shut the door last night. Around 11PM, I had to get up and move a runner under the door (6 foot long rug) so that the cats couldn't scratch the carpet and rip it up. Our bedroom door is where the carpet seams, and they could easily decarpet us. Luckily the apartment doesn't do deposits (just a one-time refinishing fee) but still! So much sadness. Scratch into that rug I bought for a completely different apartment that actually goes nowhere all you want, cats. Scratch away.

blaf322 · February 2016

books&icecream said:

We have a 45-pound Golden Retriever who is in the running for World's Cuddliest Dog who often does the drop-and-cuddle, meaning he stands next to you then just falls on top of you into a pile of cuddles. I have absolutely no concern that he will be aggressive toward baby in any way, but I am concerned he is going to try to pull the drop-and-cuddle on my 8-pound infant! Because we live in a small apartment, my current plan is to set up the bedside bassinet and a baby rug in the living room a few weeks ahead of time and designate them as no-dog zones.

Haha... The drop-and-cuddle. I literally just LOL'd invisioning your sweet pup drop cuddling you. Your concerns about your LO are definitely valid though. Good luck!!

SuperKristy85 · February 2016

@Piperella thanks for the tip on the bedding! We do have a down comforter so I'm going to switch it out and see if it helps! I know it's behavioral, i just havent been able to figure out exactly why! I've taken her to the vet sveral times for this and they always say she's fine.

klv · February 2016

We have 4 cats. They enjoy wresting, MMA and the 100M dash, but only between the hours of 11pm and 4 am. Hopefully the baby will learn to sleep through it.

celette482 · February 2016

@klv your cats and my cats must have the same exercise regimen. We could hold an alternate cat Olympics. At 2 am, natch

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