Baby & Cats - how do you mix the 2 without tears (or worse)

I have 2 siamese cats who have been my babies for 4 years. I am expecting my first baby in 6 weeks & wondering how I can stop my cats from sleeping on/in/around the baby when he/she arrives. Already I have caught one of them asleep in the capsule & although this is not a concern, it would be if the baby was in there!
I wonder if anyone has purchased anything that protects the baby without harming either parties. I have a net curtin on a ring however I dont think that will be enough.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Thanks

Hello I saw a segment on Harrys Practice about this subject. What he did was get an old or second hand fly screen door and put this on the nursery door. This way the cats can still move around the house and the baby is safe in its room. Our cat was our baby as well before our real baby came along. I found him a few times fast asleep in the babies cot before the baby was born. His nose was very put out when the baby came and would try to crawl on my lap or get in between myself and the baby. I just tried to give him as much attention one on one as I could and gradually decreased the time. He hated it when the baby would cry and would run away. He is fine now and will actually let our son pat him gently. However we recently went a way for a few days holiday and when we came home you could clearly see where the cat had been sleeping in th cot!! Good luck.

My cat has a mortal fear of the vacume cleaner whether it is going or not so I make sure I leave the pipe part of it in the doorway of my sons room where the cat can see it. I also found the mosie net was enough to deter her from jumping into the cot. I burn citronella in an oil burner in the room to, though this is mainly to deter my dog as I know they hate citronella, but it seems to deter the cat as well.

My biggest problem now is my son trying to get at my cat as he is crawling and as soon as she is near he is after her like a flash! Thankfully over the last 6 months my animals have all become accostomed to being outdoors, but I wish I had've started working on them whilst pregnant!

I have the same problem with my 1 year old temperamental cat who loves to climb into bed with me each morning for a snuggle - unfortunately when I started this I was unaware of the problems I would later have. I tried putting balloons in the basinette - I blew them up and put them in the cot and basinette, hoping that if he jumped in he would get a fright and maybe even pop them, I have heard that under normal circumstances this works. However there is always an exception in this case a 1 year old called Bosco who thought the balloons were great and jumped in and fell asleep, we had to pop 5 balloons with him in there to finally get him out. No doubt he'll be back, we live on a farm and often use a rifle/shotgun which the cat doesnt mind infact he loves guns!! Have also heard that tinfoil is good - my next option! Good luck

Hi,

I have three cats, one burmese and a couple of moggies. The moggies were pretty easy as they pretty much live outside but the burmese was a real lap cat (I also have a dog!). I found the dog was harder to train than the cat!. My burmese (who is used to pampering) loved the baby's cot and pram before my son was born but as soon as we brought him home, my cat didn't want anything to do with him! If my son was in his cot, my cat stayed as far away as possible. Cat's tend to hate babies crying and will generally run away. I was really nervous about it and made sure that my son's bedroom door was always closed so the cat couldn't get to him but in the end it wasn't even necessary. Mind you, I'll do the same with the next baby. It requires a lot of vigilance and ensuring that whenever you leave the baby, it is safe where the cat can't get to it. Good luck!

Yvette

Hello

We have 2 ragdoll cats and an 8 month old baby!

didn't need to put a screen door or anything on our sons room. We just make sure the cats are not in his room when he is asleep, which they are pretty good they are learning now.

You just need to keep an eye on your cats and know where they are. Our cats have not tried to jump in the pram or cot when our baby is in there!

try not to stress out about it they all learn to live together and be happy ours have no problems and friend of ours are the same too there cats are coping fine with having the baby around!

good luck

I have 2 Tonkinese show cats that I have had for 6 years now. I chose them both from the same litter because they were so attached to each other that I couldn't bare to seperate them. I decreased the time spent with them through pregnancy so that when the baby came it wouldn't be so bad. I've had some problems, but nothing major. One of them won't go near my daughter and the other is overly affectionate. I have one of those doors with the top part cut out but instead of glass there's fly screen. I can see and hear the baby but the cats can't get in to her. The little affectionate kitty has jumped up on my lap while i'm breast feeding my daughter but she just sits there and snuggles with us. If you allow them to do this they will more happily accept the intruder, but if you force them to keep away they will become jealous. It's in their nature as oriental breeds to be possessive, so treat them as always and hope for the best. Good luck

I had the cradle set up in the babies room with a mossie net over the top of it from about the time I was 5 months pregnant. My 1 year old cat Lucy, (who was my baby), never tried to jump in the cot while the net was on, but if that net came off.........it was a different story, so they net stayed on all the time. I also used to chase her out every time she went into the baby's room. By the time my son came along, she new she were she was and wasn't allowed, and now doesn't even venture near his room. I was a concerned night though when he was first born, so Lucy used to get locked away in the laundry for the night, until my son went into his own room, where his door gets shut when he is asleep. I can still hear him because I have a monitor. He is now 9.5 months old, and it's the cats turn to be afraid. Brady now tries to "pat" Lucy, but he is a little to rough, and she runs away. Brady thinks it's a great game to chase the cat!! Good luck with your new baby, and your cats.
Tracey

I think it's important to remember that as with babies all pets are different and will react differently, we have a cat and dog which we had for 6 years before Ethan was born, Raven our cat totally hated him and me for that matter for a couple of months, she wouldn't go anywhere he was she stayed cleared of his room (which we kept the door shut anyway) she started to sleep next to my husband instead of me (form of punishment for myself I think) and pretty much showed her total dislike of the situation, our dog who I thought would be the problem and try to kill him was actually frightened and knew to stay away, and was pretty miserable for a while there.

But after about 2 months our cat got over it and is used to this new intruder and actually likes him our dog well she still not to fussed but Ethan loves her and laughs whenever he sees her.

I think it's really important for your partner or relative or someone to spend some quality time with your pets during those first few weeks especially if your breast feeding because although you don't intend to, you just don't have the time to spend with them everything is so hectic, and they still need to know there special. But if you’re dedicated and persistent everything works out in the end.

Thanks to you all for your comments & solutions. I now have a few weeks to see what might be the best all round.

Hi,

Well I have sad news. My beautiful burmese cat whom we have loved for the last 10 years passed away yesterday. My 2.5 yr old doesn't really comprehend, he just keeps asking if Billie will be back soon. I'm really sad that my new baby due in June won't have the chance to get to know him as he was a great cat. Luckily we have lots of photo's of him to remind us of his time with us. Just thought I could share my grief with other cat lovers. Thanks.

Hi there,
We have 3 cats and a 9 month old baby and I was concerned about the safety of our new baby, but what we did is kept our bedroom door closed (where our baby would be sleeping) in the last few weeks before he was born and the first few months after. We then would leave the door open during the day and close it at night, so we let them back in slowly.
I'm not sure what your cats are like but we have one who can be tempremental, one who is very affectionate (with me) which can be a problem when I'm with my son and another who we need to keep an eye on only part of the time.
I hoped this helped a bit and good luck.