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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
cats plus baby on the way...
We have two "mostly" well behaved cats. We are also expecting our first baby in January. I am not one of those people who will be getting rid of the cats, so let me make that clear up front. However, I have been trying to wean them off certain behaviors in preparation for the baby. I started holding a baby doll while on the couch to teach them not to cuddle me when I have the baby for instance. Lately though, their hair on the couch is getting annoying to me. My husband says I need to make a choice about making the couch off limits all together. I'll miss my cat cuddles while watching tv since I'm home all the time. Is it too soon to start this? Anyone have cats/small dogs and kids that can offer advice?
Re: cats plus baby on the way...
First off- congrats on being a mommy-to-be
Second- I am a cat lover too- I have 3 of them and they are my furbabies for sure
I would say right now would be a good time to start trying to wean them off the couch sitting. I know it seems far away, but cats are really stubborn creatures of habit, and when you're messing with "their" space they could tend to get jealous or just really annoying.
I would definitely try to make them their "own" space so they don't feel like you just booted them, and give lots of treats to reinforce the positive behavior of going to their own space and staying off the couch. I have a great catnip spray that my cats are drawn to, so that might be worth spraying on their new place. Also, cats dislike citrus- so you might want to get a citrus-y spray -- they have organic sprays at the pet store you can get with it in there- and sprtiz the couch so they will be less apt to sit on it.
Those are all of the ideas I have for now- let me know if that helps
Hmmmmm.
We have three cats, a 16-month-old, and a baby due next month. I was never really concerned about cat cuddles while holding my son. I was more concerned with the cats getting into his room and then wanting to sleep with him, especially when he was still pretty small. I basically would let them into his room so they could see all the new stuff and get used to it but I wouldn't let them go in the crib, even before he was born.
I don't really have any advice because I think it would be much more difficult to keep cats off the couch, and that's not something we ever attempted. It was/is important to me that Charlie and our cats be friends and that we could all share the same space. So there have been many times when I've had both a cat and a child on me, and it doesn't bother me at all. Charlie loves the cats and they love him.
I will say this, though, that a good vacuum (like a Dyson) will help a lot with the couch.
We didn't do much to prepare the cat's for the Ivy's arrival prior. Our one cat wanted to sleep in her bassinet and crib all the time so we had to put tin foil in them. She hated it and never tried to get in there ever again.
Once, DD arrived though my other cat kept trying to climb onto me while I was holding DD. She learned within a day or two not too. Whenever she would come over and try and climb on me, I would put a pillow next to me and pat it. I would only give her attention while holding DD, if she sat on the pillow.
We have a cat who is very afraid of people. But she loves the babies. Just shot this video yesterday.
http://www.vimeo.com/15745034
After 2 rounds of IVF & 2 rounds of FET, we were blessed with identical twin girls!
We have 2 cats and we really didn't do anything to prepare. They used to like to sleep on the changing table, but never in the crib fortunately. One of the cats used to be really skiddish (sp?) but really mellowed out and he's great with my son, he lets him pet him, pull his tail, etc - poor kitty!
As for being more grossed out, that was totally me. I have had much less torerance for cat hair on the couch and stuff. I just clean more and the cats tend to stay on out giant bean bag. One thing we did do, is get them to go outside more, they were indoors because we started out in an apartment, but when we moved, they started going outside. No way did I want to deal with a cat box and a baby!
I let my cat cuddle with me and the baby, never worried about the cat hair, etc. I always put a clean blanket down for the baby to lay on to keep her from dirt and to help protect the couch, etc. from blowouts and spit up.
Aerie loves her cat and now her two new kittens. We have pics of her and the fat cat laying next to each other when she was a newborn and the cat dwarfed her. You park your butt on random germy places while you're out and then come sit on the couch and transfer all of that yuck to the couch, why worry about cat hair?