Tips for happy cats and newborns

[RMarieClaire]

For past two years our family has been me, DH and our two lovely cats. But now our first baby is due in 4 weeks. We can't wait but I am a bit worried about our cats. I've heard it can be awful for them and that they sometimes leave home  They go out in the day and stay in at night, but they're also very sociable - the boy in particular and love to spend the evening with us.

I know our priorities are going to change but we really love them so much I want to do all we can to make sure they're as happy as possible. Any tips from other cat mums out there?

What happend to the rest of my post? Oh well i can't be bothered to retype it on my phone. Prob enough typing mistakes already.

I have a 3 month old baby and a couple of 2 year old cats. The cats seem fairly unfazed by the baby, although they are a bit peeved that a) some of their stuff has been moved, b) my lap is often off-limits due to breastfeeding and c) there are so many soft places to sit that they aren't allowed in!

A) they will get used to it
B) my husband is enjoying the extra cuddles and they snuggle up in any of my clothing that I leave out (because of my scent I guess...)
C) I only found them in baby seats/beds once each item because the telling off they received was apparently pretty effective! Baby was not in items at these times, and cats were not hurt in any way, just flapped at (they hate stuff that flaps)

Thanks all - this is so helpful and reassuring. When I mention to my friends who have babies they just think we'll not care, but they're not pet owners. I know we'll care - even if they also drive us mad.

Our cats don't sleep in our room at all - much to DH's chagrin - so their routine wont be too affected at least. At night we keep them downstairs, which is all open plan but with doors so they can't come upstairs. However they do have the run of the house in the day, which will have to change for certain rooms. At least it's summer so they'll be able to spend a lot of time outside.

They've met a few babies and been very horrified by crying, but they've not had enough exposure to get used to it I suppose.

OP I'm in almost the same position. My cat has been so clingy throughout my pregnancy and has managed to squeeze through the stair Gate we placed to keep her away from our bedroom. She has also started forcing open the kitchen door when we locked her downstairs. She then sleeps next to me all night. She also spends a lot of time in the nursery staring at the baby's stuff when she never bothered when it was my office. It's making me nervous.

I was worried about this when we found out we were pregnant! All we have changed is he’s shut out of the bedroom whilst we are asleep. He loves her to bits!! If he wasn’t supervised he would definitely climb on top of her though. And at first he hated to hear her screaming and if he was in the room he’d run away but if he was shut out he’d get all anxious and pace and miaow outside the door bless him.

Reading with interest as I'm 9 weeks and we have an 8 year old cat that we rescued when he was 3. He is pretty chilled so I'm hoping he'll be OK but I do worry about how he'll be with the crying! Will probably play some recordings to get him used to it and he has a few quiet 'chill out' spots he can go to. Although he sometimes sits on us, he is just as happy to the side on a nice cushion. At night we keep him in the conservatory so that's fine. Am totally expecting him to try and get in all the little, soft places for a nap though! Will check out the net top one, that could be a problem solved!

We'd only had our crazy but much loved indoor cat a couple of months when we found out I was pregnant, so I was a bit worried. I needn't have been - he's adapted so well! The Cats Protection website has loads of advice and recordings of a baby crying to get them used to the sound. I used this with mine and I really think it helped. I had to stay in hospital 2 nights after baby was born and on the second night my husband brought some of baby's worn clothes home for the cat to sniff to get used to his smell. We've also made sure our cat gets plenty of cuddles and playtime so he doesn't feel left out. Congratulations - it is 100% possible to have a happy family including cats and babies

I was also really worried about this. They couldn't have cared less when he first arrived. At first they left the room if he cried, but that soon stopped. They did get a bit less fuss than they were used to (though still lots - more from DH than me when I was breastfeeding all day and a bit touched out, but that didn't last long), but didn't seem too bothered. They've been rather less keen on him since he started crawling (he has a deep but very unrequited love for them), but that just means we have to keep a very close eye to make sure he's not poking/pulling on them - I think it's actually quite a lot easier with cats than dogs as they just escape to a higher height than he can reach if he's annoying them by following them around.

Honestly, it's been so much less of an issue than I thought it would be, and one of our two is very highly strung. Compared to going from a one cat to a two cat household the trauma has been very, very minimal!