Preparing cat for a new baby

[mummymccar]

Hi,
DP and I will be having our first in February a d I was just wondering if anyone had any advice they could offer on preparing our indoor cats?
We aren't worried about two of them as they mostly keep themselves to themselves. The third is very attached to me though and suffers from jealousy. We aren't worried about her harming the baby, just that she'll feel left out and unhappy. She normally sleeps at my feet at night but because the baby will be in with us for the first few months we've stopped letting them into the bedroom this week. We closed off access to another room for a few months first so that they could get used to closed doors and restricted access to certain rooms. They were upset at first but adjusted. Closing the bedroom door however already seems to have had a bad impact on jealous cat. She has become very upset, sleeping outside the bedroom door and crying. I've been trying to show her affection during the day but when the baby comes I'm worried that she'll feel like she is missing out.
Does anyone have any advice please?
TIA

so long as the cat can sit on the front of your lap while you are breastfeeding calm will ensue
and babies wiggle so the cat will still prefer to sleep with you

our biggest problem was that old cat took to yowling along when DD cried
his sister moved out into the garden apart from meal times for the first year of DDs life.

we just let the cats have a good look at them, then they wondered off and took no more notice.

I'm sure there is a book on Amazon you can get, which if you read to your cats a few times will get them used to the idea of having a baby in the house.

Or you could wait until your baby arrives, and realise that you don't really bother about about the cats fussing about not being allowed somewhere or missing out, as your baby is your only highest priority.

And if you ever find them asleep in the cot you will screech and throw them down the stairs take them down stairs.

Thank you everyone! I'm hoping that baby and cat become best buds. I think that whatever happens, the cats will adjust eventually.

Tin foil and lemon peel in crib/cot in advance of baby arriving.

Start restricting anywhere now.

Baby 10 days old- our cat hasn't wanted to know her except once when I was lying down breastfeeding she came and lay down by us.

Never heard of the tin foil and lemon peel trick - ill have a go at that, thanks!
We've started putting in the restrictions to ease them and also started playing a CD occasionally with baby sounds on it so that the noise won't bother them as much when baby is here.
Thank you

I bought Feliway when my DD arrived. Not sure if it made a difference...

All we did was restrict access in advance which you have done.

Make sure your cat has a place to escape to when the baby cries. Mine disappeared out the back pronto each time as they hate the noise of crying, so try to make sure your cat has somewhere safe to hide.

My cat was still quite young (1.5) when DD was born. I would say her nose was seriously out of joint until the baby was about 6 months and slept in her own room and she was allowed back in. Now the evenings are her time as she has us all to herself too with DD not around.

They are not best buddies yet. DD is quite fond of the cat but the cat does not reciprocate but I'm sure she will once DD is old enough to feed her felix from the cupboard.

I think it depends in cats age and personality.

We tried Feliway last time we moved house actually and it seemed to help our nervous cat actually so I might try some of that again, thanks for the suggestion!
They've got their own little sanctuary room with radiator beds, toys, etc so that they don't have to see us if they don't want to since they are indoor cats. They also have a cupboard they can disappear into when really distressed so they should be ok in that respect.
Thanks!