[*Anna*]

We have an almost 5 year old dog and cat. Our cat is a Siamese- and the sweetest kitty ever. She is very small, weighs about 5-6 lbs- looks like a kitten. Our dog is an Italian Greyhound (minature greyhound- looks like the Simpsons dog). They both sleep with us in bed, Luke our dog sleeps under the covers by DH's feet. Our kitty usually sleeps in between us or by our feet- but lately over the last month I've shoo'ed her and she's slept on a recliner in our room.

Now once baby is here, I'll have a bassinet set up next to where I sleep and will be nursing her. I worry about our kitty trying to jump in there, being curious and all. And our dog will probably be curious too. I've heard of having a little bottle of water and spray her if she goes in it.

Any advice or stories are welcomed Oh and here are a couple pics of our pets, just cuz I think they are the cutest. If you have pics of your pets, please share





Thanks

[*krista*]

I don't have any advice since we haven't had any kids yet, but I just wanted to say that your furbabies are adorable! I love the last pic.

[greeneyes]

We had two dogs when we brought Lily home and we never had any issues with them and the baby. They were curious about her and we let them sniff and explore her and her room (under supervision of course) and after that, they pretty much just ignored her, lol. I did have Lee bring a t-shirt that Lily wore while we were still in the hospital so that they could be introduced to her scent before we came home. Both of them cuddled up next to it and I think it helped them not be as skittish when we did finally bring her home.

[IamMom]

Hey Anna - your babies are super cute!!! Sadly, you're not going to like my story because it ends with us giving one of our dogs away after our son came along. But our other dog has done well so there is hope!

Here they are - Kahlua (Lulu) is the shih tzu - the white one and Kianti (Kia) is the little brown one (the one we had to give away - she is a Brussels Griffon)



Although Lulu is the dog I got when I was single and was really my baby - Kia was a dog that was much more needy and was truly the baby. She was VERY attached to me and needed alot of attention. Well needless to say she didn't want to share that attention with a baby. She stayed away from him while he was a baby - but one he started walking it wasn't good. She snipped at my step son a few times and some other children and did out of fear I think b/c alot of kids that came around wanted to hold her and baby her but she was scared. So we knew there was potential for her being "bad with kids". So one day I was sititng with her in my lap cross-legged on the floor and my little guy came toddling up from behind me and kind of fell around into my lap - she lunged at him and bit him right in the face - he ended up with a big gash on the inside of his upper lip. So off to the ER we went (after I had to stop my husband from strangling the poor little thing in front of our son). I had to talk to animal control (so embarrasing) but when you bring a dog bite into the ER they have to report it. The guy said that we should just be aware that if our dog bites another person's child we could be sued big time. So even though she weighed all of 8 pounds and was no bigger than a large sewer rat, we knew she was too dangerous to have in the house. She was too scared of the kids and too protective of me. So we gave her up for adoption on the Brussels Griffon website and now she is in a good home with NO KIDS!

Our other dog tolerates our son but by no means likes him, unless he has some kind of sticky goodness to share with her. She doesn't like him petting her but let's him do it occasionally. She would never hurt him but she's not going to let him pull her ears and all that lovey dovey stuff some dogs allow. I think smaller dogs are less good with kids overall...which stinks. But if you look online the best "kid friendly" dogs are like labs and such. OH well!

I didn't have to deal with cats that can jump into cribs and such so I'm not any help there. However, both our dogs went/go to the bathroom in the litter box and it was really easy to teach out son that that was yucky and no something to play in/with and we never had any problems with that. He in fact loves to help me clean out the box which is a whole adventure in itself. At least hopefully he'll be real good with chores!

Good luck Anna - I hope that your cutie patootie pets do great with your little one!

[misfitinmn]

We have one furbaby, Remi (a 7ish year old Springer Spaniel), who was our total baby before Ben came along. We forgot to bring something of Ben's home for Remi to sniff before Ben himself came home, so we just let Remi sniff him over when we brought him home. And then, basically, Remi just totally ignored Ben until recently when Ben has started taking more of an interest in Remi and moving around more.

My biggest challenge was MY feelings towards Remi. While I was going through "the baby blues", there were times I seriously wanted to KILL this dog. The poor thing was the brunt of a lot of anger from me for a few weeks, but we worked through it and now it's all good. It just took a little bit of adjusting on all of our parts.

[Alison81]

I have to say, I want my next dog to be an italian greyhound, they are great dogs!

I didn't have pets when I had Elsa, but I got my mini dachshund, Molly, last year. I would allow the dog to sniff where the baby will be, and not interrupt the sniffing. Molly is not the friendliest dog in the world, but it helps if I let her sniff everyone who comes in before they pet her.

I've had some issues with Elsa and Molly, but nothing that can't be overcome. She has bitten her once when she was hugging her too tight, and I've had to teach her to leave her alone when she's growling. But Elsa can carry her around, and walk her, and she doesn't seem to mind the abuse, lol. It's been a good situation with an older child, and it's cute seeing how much Molly loves Elsa. She whines if we're at the park and can't see Elsa. I hope it turns out well for you. I know my pup is like a part of the family.

[Adriana's Mommy]

I love all the pictures.. Vary pretty furbabies..

We had no problems with our lab when we brought Adriana home. The cat on the other hand wasn't to happy.. lol She hissed at Adriana the first day we brought her home.. It wasn't that she disliked the baby, our cat just hates females.. lol She's always loved me and now loves Adriana, but any other woman, it's a different story.. Our cat use to be super friendly until we had to board her for a month while we looked for a house the excepted pets.. I think the female caretakers did something to her that pissed her off.. lol

Here's a few pictures of my furkid, Dakota.

Dakota is almost 4 years old..


Adriana and Dakota are best friends.. Dakota is a small lab. To give you an idea on how small Dakota is, Adriana is 29.5 inches tall..




And here's our grumpy cat Gracie.. lol


Oh, our cat does not jump into Adriana's crib.. Our cat is way to fat to jump that high.. lol

sorry for posting lots of pictures.. I couldn't choose just one..

[ScottishBrit]

You make me want a LAB!!!! I LOVE big dogs!!!!! We have a cat that is VERY attatched to me. I bottle feed him so he thinks Im his mom. I was very worried about that too. I wound up getting a tent cover to put over the PnP By our bed. It had a zip around the front that you could close. The only problem with that was Everytime I'd zip it up it would wake her, so eventully I stopped zipping it. He never really bothered her But Im always afraid that when she's in our bed he's gonna crawl on her. When ever she's in he stays at the end of the bed. When ever she's not he's right up by us, it's weird. I think the only problem were gonna have is when she starts crawling he might swat at her. He lays next to her on the floor now and stretches out. Sometimes a little to close. Cambria LOVES watching him walk around and just laughs all the time. The other day she grabed him really hard and had a handfull of hair..poor kitty. He just ran off...

[soImarriedAnerd]

I just wanted to throw out some things my friends have done.

First thing locations---anything you don't want the cat to lay on that baby will use--put tinfoil all over it, apparently they hate to walk or lay on it. Also there are little cover nets (like a misquito net) for cribs/bassinets to keep animals off of it. Aslo start kicking them off/out of things you don't want them in now. If you start it now they will not think its baby taking over they will think its you. (helps prevent jealousy issues)

Second-sounds, babys make tons of weird sound and that can freak out animals. so play them sounds of babies crying/plaing anything like that.

Third smells, start getting them used to the smell of babies. some of my friends started using baby lotion/powder/shampoo on themselves to get the anmials used to those smells. (oh diaper wipes are great for washing your hands! and stains on your clothes!) Also when baby is born make sure you introdue baby smell before baby comes home. So while still at the hospital/birthing center send DH home with baby's smell (blanket/onsie/etc).

If you have friens with children who know how to act around animals or are too young to pull/pinch/etc the animals maybe do a little baby sitting or having them over to start getting them used to little people.

There are great online resources about this if you google it.

[*Anna*]

thanks girls and thanks Angela for coming up with that great list too

[Resi]

I have two Persian cats. They are both 5 years old. I was worried about how they would adjust to Oliver because they are both scardy cats and don't like change. They did wonderful! Both act like he has always been with us. They don't bother him at all. Lula runs out of the room when he starts crying. It must bother her ears or something. Both of my cats were my babies and when I was pregnant I felt bad for them because I knew that I would not have as much time for them. I always heard that once a baby comes pets become just an animal. I thought I would never think that way. To be honest it's kind of true. I still love them but they don't compare with Oliver. I use to think that they would. haha.. not even close. They don't get as much attention from me but that is because I'm busy with Oliver or trying to get things done when Oliver is sleeping/playing by himself.

[freesiangel]

I agree with the scent thing - especially with the dog. Have DH bring something home early to get them used to the scent.

I always thought my dogs would be horrible with kids, but I've had several babies around them in the last few years and they LOVED them! Mainly because they had food on them. You see, my dogs are ruled by their stomachs... They could loathe a person, but if said person gives them treats on a regular basis they will soon be in love with that person. But even when we had a baby over that wasn't on solids yet, they LOVED him. I don't know if it was the smell or the size or what, but they were so happy just to sniff him and give him "kisses" and then leave him alone. They never once jumped on him (or tried to) or got rough.

Still, I'm nervous about Zuul. He's a bit of a rotten dog and I don't think he'll do anything to the baby, but I think the bad behavior that I put up with now is going to start to get to me once the baby is here - like I'm just not going to tolerate his antics anymore! I've already told Jer he's going to have to work with him more once the baby is here, because I'm just not going to. Brodie is laid back, so I don't think he'll give us any issues besides hiding in the bedroom for a week or so because he's sad and feeling ignored. He's a bit sensitive.

I'm sure there will be a time in the beginning where I just want the dogs gone, but I know once the baby gets a little older and is crawling/walking around that they'll be great. I'm just going to have to find a way to cope, because giving them away is absolutely out of the question.

[SingingMama]

I just wanted to throw out some things my friends have done.

First thing locations---anything you don't want the cat to lay on that baby will use--put tinfoil all over it, apparently they hate to walk or lay on it. Also there are little cover nets (like a misquito net) for cribs/bassinets to keep animals off of it. Aslo start kicking them off/out of things you don't want them in now. If you start it now they will not think its baby taking over they will think its you. (helps prevent jealousy issues)

Second-sounds, babys make tons of weird sound and that can freak out animals. so play them sounds of babies crying/plaing anything like that.

Third smells, start getting them used to the smell of babies. some of my friends started using baby lotion/powder/shampoo on themselves to get the anmials used to those smells. (oh diaper wipes are great for washing your hands! and stains on your clothes!) Also when baby is born make sure you introdue baby smell before baby comes home. So while still at the hospital/birthing center send DH home with baby's smell (blanket/onsie/etc).

If you have friens with children who know how to act around animals or are too young to pull/pinch/etc the animals maybe do a little baby sitting or having them over to start getting them used to little people.

There are great online resources about this if you google it.[/b]

This is exactly what i did with my two cats before my son arrived. We also kept the foil on the changing table for a while after he was born. As for the sleeping issue, our cat, Murphy, loved to sleep with us. We had to lock him out of our room. I was terrified that he would jump into the bassinet while we were sleeping. He probably would never do that, but I didn't take any chances. Now, Minnie, our other cat, she is the super curious one. I wouldn't put it past her to do something like that. For this reason, I have always kept a baby gate in my son's doorway. DreamBaby makes gates that are extra tall, so that my cats cannot jump over them. i use baby gates so that they can still smell, but not get into his room.

Now, Murphy is best buds with Jack (my son). Minnie still hisses at him, and is afraid of him.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

I'll be honest.

My pomeranian was HORRIBLE. He acted out, he peed on the baby's stuff, and was just a total brat. It was so bad that we had to find him a new home Our lab has done MUCH better. She is totally fine and a pleasure to be around.

I have a fear of cats around babies. My mom's cat jumps into the pack-n-play that she has at her house and sleeps in it. My mom never puts Reid in it though, so it's okay. Cats suffocating babies just totally freaks me out though!