how should i prepare my cat?

[juju283]

So I have a beautiful little Pussy cat called Heidi. She is like our baby at the moment. She is a young cat and is quite skittish really. I know that where we fuss over her so much at the moment she is not going to take too kindly to a baby. She will very jealous I feel. What can I do now to prepare her for the baby's arrival? I am due on 21st february. We are planning to have the baby sleeping in with us for the first few months so I am guessing we will need to shut Heidi out of our room at night? What are the nets you can put over cots and Moses baskets and where can you buy them? Do they work to stop cats climbing into the cot? I'm obviously concerned about Heidi suffocating the baby!

It's not recommended to leave a baby alone with any pet, and when you're asleep that's essentially what you're doing, so yes I would shut her out of the bedroom. Start now rather than when the baby turns up, as a) otherwise she'll associate the baby with the change and b) the wailing and scratching at the door will be easier to bear BEFORE you become horribly sleep-deprived.

My cat just avoided the baby when he arrived, so chances are she'll just make herself scarce for a bit and then adjust. You'll have much bigger things to worry about when your LO turns up so please don't worry about it!

Agreed. We used to let our cat roam the house at night. About 6 weeks before my due date we started closing our bedroom door. He got used to not coming in (and got all that annoying door-scratching out of the way) before our dd arrived. He quite happily sleeps in the kitchen now.

Other than that, just be prepared to not leave your baby and cat alone together. Our cat seems to quite like dd so far but I just wouldn't risk leaving them unsupervised together.

i too love my kitties and they were/are like my other babies!!
all we did was stop them sleeping in our bedroom at night about 4 weeks before dd was born mainly as i didn't want them to feel turfed out as soon as dd arrived. we had a bit of door scratching but i taped a pillow to the outside of the door.
apart from that we carried on as normal. one of my cats is v skittish and she has turned out to adore dd.
cats were allowed back in our room over night from a few weeks after dd was born but they tended to avoid. i have never had any nets or anything like that.
dd is 21 months now and in her own room and cats are back in our room over night.
i sometimes even catch dd tucking the cats up in her bed much to their horror!!!

also dd LOVES the cats. first thing she does in the morning is get up and race thru to feed the cats. cats think its ace as dd feeds them about 20x more than i would!!

I wouldn't risk leaving pets alone with a baby either. Ours stayed well away at the beginning (it was a massive shock to them!) but one of them now tries to cuddle up with DD while she's on me all the time.

I wouldn't bother with cat nets. We put one on the crib during the day when it wasn't being used and I discovered one of the cats sitting on top of the net, which then collapsed anyway! We haven't bothered with them since.

My cat was (still is my FURRY baby) and I was worried about him coping with the arrival of our baby.

Before he arrived I let the cat smell and adjust to the nursery and set up the Moses basket and cot early. Whenever the cat attempted to get near it he was removed and firmly told no. I downloaded some baby crying/general baby noises and played them quite loudly near my cat a few times.

When I gave birth to my son, I sent home some of his used clothes and got DP to show the cat/ allow him to smell them whilst feeding him treats. Cat was decidedly aloof to most of my efforts and much more interested in treats!

We did a slow supervised intro, allowing the cat to sniff the baby when he came home. My cat man was a little nervous around the baby but we are nearly 4 weeks down the line and I'm making sure he still gets treats and fusses. He is now fairly interested in the baby and always gives him a sniff but hasn't tried to climb on him/sleep next to him (apart from when he lies on the breastfeeding pillow as I'm feeding LO!)

We keep him out of the bedroom at night just to be safe but have set kitty up a nice soft comfy bed downstairs which so far he does seem to use.

I know I sound like a crazy cat lady...I guess I am but we are a very happy house now and I can't wait to see them become friends as LO gets bigger!

My cat is terrified of babies and children so I am not planning to kick him out of our room when baba is here. (My neighbour was here most days when she had her baby and toddler and cat used to hide under bed for hours until they were gone!) He sleeps in his radiator bed or top of the wardrobe and the baba's cot is soo deep I don't think cat will want to go near it. We aren't going to put the cot in the room before baba is here so cat doesn't think he can make it his territory though if that makes sense.

Our cat moved out for a few weeks after ds was born. Came back a few weeks later when the weather got cold, but is very aloof when the dc (5 and 2) are about.

Pull its tail, stick your fingers in its ears, stroke its fur the wrong way, poke it in the eye, throw Lego at it, smother it with a blanket, shout in its face.

Then it will be prepared.

Sorry, not helpful

HAHAH plateof!!!!!

Ignore her and forget to feed her a few times!

IME cats avoid babies when they arrive. Babies are wriggly, noisy, strange smelling, unfamiliar and unpredictable. All things cats hate!

I would simply get the cat used to not being allowed free access to any rooms you are going to use for baby sleeping any more, ie: your bedroom and the future nursery.

I suppose you could try to cut back on the amount of fuss/cuddles with the cat a little, as that will be inevitable once baby comes, but i'm not entirely convinced a cat will link the arrival of baby and change in routine the way a dog might, for eg.