Pets and babies and beds

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journey137

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The recent thread about sleeping with pets got me thinking… what do you do with a pet used to sleeping in the bed when baby comes along and you want to try cosleeping with the baby? Kicking the animal out of the room is obviously a possibility, but as many said in the other thread, cats tend to be obnoxious when they can’t be where they want to be in their own house :rolleyes: My cat has been known to find a stack of freshly laundered clothes and poo on them when she is mad at me. I’m thinking about trying to crate her at night along with the dog 🤷 Of course my family thinks I’m crazy for having a cat in the house with a baby. They steal baby’s breath don’t ya know??
 
Cats are jealous because in the wild when a mother cat has another litter while still living with an old litter she throws the old litter out to make room. Your cat might see the rivalry as life-and-death. Ont he other hand, some cats are more adult and see the baby as their own child. Then again, some see the baby as part of the same litter as themselves and want to cuddle, so you never know. Play by ear and be kind to all, especially yourself.
 
It might be a nonissue. Before the baby was born the cat would constantly jump in the crib for a nap. I couldn’t get her to stop! I figured for sure that we were going to have some real problems when the baby came around. Well, now the baby is here and the cat still sleeps in the crib, but the moment I put the baby in there she jumps on out. She isn’t jealous of the baby, she just wants nothing to do with him.
Does your cat normally sleep next to you (like where the baby would be?) or by your feet? My cat sleeps at my feet so on the rare occaision I’ve fallen asleep with the baby in the bed the cat wasn’t a problem either. I think you might have more problems if you try and crate the cat. I can’t imagine mine putting up with that. Could you just close the bedroom door at night?
Good luck!
 
I had to put the cat out. He’s spiteful and mean. I love him, but he really is a mean nasty old cat. And he sheds worse than any pet I’ve ever owned. I would feel bad about it, except that I know no one else would put up with him anyway, so at least this way he still has a home and gets fed. He’s a biter too. Cat is out.

The dog is still in, and since he’s a pretty cuddly sort of personality, so I don’t miss the cat so much. He’s actually a better cuddler than the cat because he can take a hint when I’d rather not be cuddling.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. This cat usually sleeps by my feet after she gets comfortable by thoroughly stomping and kneeding on hubby’s… um… private parts. He usually kicks her off the bed but she pounces right back on his stuff until she’s done. As he says, at least she doesn’t use claws. She sleeps at our feet until I open my eyes and then she is up in my face cuddling me, laying on my neck purring, and kneeding on my chest and belly. That’s what I’m worried about – she’s a very persistent lap fungus for when I’m awake and sitting/laying. When I walk around the house, she’s right on my heels the whole time. When hubby tries to pet her, she runs over to me to be petted. I don’t really like her that much, but she’s almost literally attached to me.

If we just closed the bedroom door, she would sit by it and purr and meow and stick her paw under the door to try and open it all night. I’ve crated her with the dog before for several hours of cleaning and there wasn’t any problem. She just curls up in one corner and sleeps. Aside from her unhealthy obsession with me, she’s a very laid back and sweet kitty. She purrs so much I named her Purdy.

We’ve still got months before the baby gets here but I’d like to get her used to a different sleeping place before that happens so she doesn’t get mad and poo on the poor infant. It’d be really good if she didn’t want to have anything to do with the baby, but as much attention as I’ll be paying to it, I really can’t see her being indifferent towards it. Who knows though… cats are so fickle.
 
We had 2 cats when our first was born… well when all were born so far but now only have one.

Like another poster the cats would sometime like to sleep in the babies bed before they were born. We just cleaned everything well before the baby was born and covered the bed the last week or so.

In regards to cosleeping each of our boys have slept with us part of most of the night until they were 6 to 9 months old then started sleeping in their crib which is in our room.

Normally the cat sleeps between us or at the foot of the bed. In every case the cat just moved down to the foot or would sleep in another room while the baby was in there. Never had any problems (3 kids 1 on the way).

In fact in each case our cat, whom we rescued from the pound just before our first was born because our “baby” the cat I had owned for 11 years died of cancer. My wife was pregnant and upset and the house seemed empty so we got another. Back to the point though…

In each case I have found our cat(s) to be very protective of the children, especially when they were infants. Perhaps it’s because we do love on them and the babies a lot and they don’t feel threatened. In fact each time we bring a newborn home it seems like DC, our male cat, rarely leaves the side of the crib (there is a chair and a bed close by) if the baby is sleeping, especially when we are in the other room.

When I was a child my parent cat jump into my crib at 2 months and freaked everyone out as she was attacking something. The window was open and some wasps had gotten on my bed. I’m highly allergic, if I had been stung at that young age it would have been life threatening. Then at about 18 months while in the front yard with my parents a doberman who was due to be put down for mauling another child got out of his electric fence a few houses down. As my parents were both sitting and I was about 10 feet away there is not way they could have gotten to me before the dog did. The moment the dog crossed the threshold of our yard our cat dropped out of the a tree onto the back of the next and dropped the dog within a few feet. My parents had the extra seconds to grab me but the blood dog ran off before they could do anything. The funny part was that the guy came down later and threatened to sue my parents if the dog wasn’t already being put down because our cat hurt his dog. Little cat big dog, lol.

Joe
 
it’s essential that the new baby get used to the family pets. I suggust baby, the dog, cat and parents sleep in the same bed…the more the merrier!!
 
We have a 22 lb American Cocker Spaniel and a queen size bed, so when the boys or girl sleep in the bed with us (rare, but it happens) there is plenty of room.

She usually sleeps by our feet anyway, so it’s never an issue.

However, if she was a 90 lb Black Lab, it might be more of an issue, so I think it might depend on the dog.
 
blaskoman said:
it’s essential that the new baby get used to the family pets. I suggust baby, the dog, cat and parents sleep in the same bed…the more the merrier!!
Click to expand...
This seems a bit of a contrast from your other posts. 🙂
 
There are dozens of pictures/ videos of me sleeping with my arm around my cat Silly from when I was 5-6 months old and up. He was younger (under 1 year old) when I was a baby, I know that I loved the cats and I viewed them as my personal teddy bears, they were pretty good cats though, that my mom had spoiled before I was born, they were always great with me. I remember dressing them up when I was little and they didn’t even care. 😃 Although, my family got another cat later on that is horrible with any young children, so I think it partially depend on the cats.
 
Cute stories about the kitties and babies. I hope our cat will be accomidating too.
blaskoman said:
it’s essential that the new baby get used to the family pets. I suggust baby, the dog, cat and parents sleep in the same bed…the more the merrier!!
Click to expand...
:eek: Ohh goodness no!! Familiarize them all, yes, but I’d never have any covers ever again if I let the dog sleep with me as well as my husband. I didn’t have very good heating last winter so I let the dog sleep with me as my personal furry bedwarmer. Naturally when we got married in December we decided to give sleeping together a shot. Queen sized bed, one beagle dog, two people, it should work, right? WRONG! My dog steals covers, my husband steals covers, and they wouldn’t let me sleep in the middle so I ended up with nothing. After about a week of fighting for a scrap of covers, I decided she was going back to the crate at night and I’d just snuggle with my new husband bedwarmer instead 😛 The dog still does make a good nap partner though. She will curl up against my back and the cat at my feet and I’ll be nice and comfy until the dog starts running and barking in her sleep… :rolleyes:
 
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