Nervous cat and new baby

[theheatherjane1]

Morning

I have the world's jumpiest cat. Everything scares her. Currently it's just my partner and I and we live a fairly quiet life and she does ok (as long as you don't turn the tap on or stand up without warning her).
She's prone to a bladder infection when stressed so we have her on the relevant food stuffs, we use feliway, she takes a cystaid and a zylklene tablet everyday.
My cat and I, we bloody love each other, she's my shadow and she gets a lot of my attention, and I'd do anything to keep her calm and happy.
So obviously having a baby and moving house in the next few months is not going to help her.

Any suggestions /advice for keeping her on the straight and narrow?

I had this. My cat only likes me and is so very very timid. We set boundaries early on, as she was basically evicted from her own room as we needed it for the baby. I let her look and sniff at everything but she wasn't allowed in the cot or the pram. I made sure she had lots of hidey holes in various places around the house, I did this by putting her blanket in various places and seeing where she would take to.

When baby came she was mostly uninterested in him but she was very disturbed by the volume of visitors. She only hissed and went to scratch once and that was when she decided she wanted me when we had a lounge full of people?! I didn't tolerate any possessiveness over me at all and she knows that her place is below baby (baby is now 2.5!!). If she ever came near me I tried to make sure she got some attention but only if it was convenient, I.e. Not feeding baby at the time.

I'm surprised how well it all worked out to be honest. But we do have DS2 she in a few weeks now and I wonder how she will cope going through it all again. I'm doing less visitors this time though which should help.

Thanks for that.
I think the visitors and baby noise will be the things that distress her the most, a friend suggested we start playing baby crying sounds before the baby's due, just to get her warmed up. Poor cat.
She lives under our bed in times of stress so I'll make sure she's got some blankets.
She's such a meek soul, I'm going to miss our time together hanging out.

The relationship has definitely changed with my cat. I felt like I would miss her loads but actually it's been okay. She is probably a little more cuddly as she knows my time is limited so she grabs me where she can, which actually I do find a bit annoying! She also follows me around more than my toddler does. I'm glad it's worked so far though, my little boy likes to feed her and he would love to stroke her but she's too quick for him. She just runs off and hides in places he can't get to.

Play baby noises and other noises associated with visitors. Play them at a lower volume at first and then slowly turn it up louder as she gets used to it over a few weeks.

Make sure she has a safe spot in the house and try to recreate it when you move, putting a blanket in the new spot with her scent on it will help too.