Baby + Cat =??

[pitterpatter]

Well hello everyone.. i know i am only a few weeks pregnant, but i have strted to think about future prep and what it will be like when buba arrives...I have a cat who ive had for 4 years... She is a house cat but does go out from time to time.

She always sleeps on my bed and as cats do just get everywhere around the house. I cant keep her out of rooms cos if i shut doors and she scarthches them, ive caught her walking across my kitchen units and ive also notice she has started to pee on my rugs! Im furious and im a clean freak! Im thinking it may be for the best to rehome her before baby comes, i dont think i could cope with cat hair on everything and would be scared incase she slept in babies cot...god i dread to think!

What did you girls do who had a cat when you found out you where pregnant?

Obviously now the baby comes 1st!... would love to hear your feedback!

Thanks

xxx

 

[Vicm]

We have a cat, well OH does. She's 12 now so doesn't do much but we got her into a routine of being out at night and in of a day as soon as I found out I was pregnant. This way she can't sneak in with baby in night as I can keep eye on her in day. Took a few weeks but she's totally used to it now thank goodness.

She doesn't sleep in our room though, she's not allowed in. We have all upstairs doors shut but will obviously be an issue with baby's room as will have to leave door open when he's in there. Will just have to keep a close eye.

 

[mrs_b_x]

We have a dog and two cats at the moment and plan to keep them when the baby comes. We have just moved to a new house so are going to let the cats out as they are currently house cats (we lived on a main road before). You can get sprays for furniture to stop them scratching and if she's just started peeing then maybe she's stressed? Maybe try one of those diffusers with the seat de-stressing things?

Having said that we are prepared that once baby is here it may be too much for the cats so will have to rehome them with my mum. We are going to give it a try tho first, I love them too much not to give it a go!

 

[Mummybexee]

I have 3 cats- not house cats as I don't believe it in( that's personal opinion I guess )

And my cats won't be going anywhere- when we have friends kids over 2 of them run off as small people freak them out lol- the other is placid as hell

Unless some danger or behavious came to light they will stay very much an important part of mine and my husbands lives. They deserve a chance - we will just make sure they are not in either of the bedrooms

We've even talked about how we will do the introductions and ensure we don't neglect them when baby comes

My cats are like a baby to me mind

 

[SpinSugar]

We have two cats. They were going go be house cats but kept peeing everywhere. So we eventually gave in and got a cat flap, now they never go inside!


They are about 18m old. They can be little buggers but they are my babies and I wouldn't dream of re homing them (unless they actively hurt the baby) we keep them shut out of every room unless we are home. Tin foil on the doors got them to stop scratching. We also shut them in the dining room at night (so they can only get to kitchen and outside) we also keep kicking them out of baby's room if we see them in there so they know not to go in there. Oh and we have got cat nets for the basket pram and cot, just in case!

They are rescue cats so very timid. We found feliway to be an absolute life saver. Infact we've just plugged a new one in as baby is due in 3 weeks!

Xx

 

[Mummybexee]

Ours are rescue ! Well 2 are 1 turned up pregnant and never left lol
Feliway is amazing- it helped chill ours out and stop them having skwabbles

Never heard of these cat nets- ill look into them

 

[SpinSugar]

Ours are rescue ! Well 2 are 1 turned up pregnant and never left lol
Feliway is amazing- it helped chill ours out and stop them having skwabbles

Never heard of these cat nets- ill look into them

I got mine really cheap on eBay and yep, feliway changed them from not even being able to touch them to very cuddly kitties!

Xx

 

[Dotty_woman]

We have one cat now but had three whilst my kids were growing up. Alan (that's our remaining cat) isn't allowed upstairs as in the past when we had multiple cats, he has peed on stuff to mark his territory. This has pretty much stopped now he is an only cat but 99% of the time he is confined to downstairs. He sleeps in the conservatory on an evening so he isn't trying to rip up the carpet anywhere else trying to get in. I think it's easy to live with cats and babies as long as you are vigilant with keeping doors closed where necessary. We never had an issue of any of our cats getting into baby's cot. xxx

 

[Jojo84]

We've banned the cats from boh bedrooms. For a few nights they scratched doors but now they're fine. I give them. Scalding when they walk on things. If you tap their nose very lightly they know its naughty

 

[pitterpatter]

Thanks ladies! All good advice there! I will look into this, we moved 5 months ago and she is now going out more, maybe we just need to re train her. She is my baby also and would be heartbreaking to let her go. I will try make my house as cat & baby friendly as poss! Got a long wait so will have plenty of time to sort out : )xxx

 

[Samantha55]

We also have two cats, they are in door cats as we live in an apartment. They are used to having a free reign but they have never been allowed in our second bedroom, the nursery to be so we will keep the door closed etc. we have started getting them used to being out of our room at night time too. Think once baby is here we will keep them closed in living room and dining room at night and then just make sure we keep a close eye on them around baby. We will just make it work the best we can as certainly don't want to get rid of our cats, they are our babies!!!

Xx

 

[Sophie_P]

We have three cats and they won't be going anywhere at all. In my opinion, pets are for life. However, if one of our cats were to hurt the baby they'll be straight to another home.

 

[Milly76]

My cat is 13 and I've had him all his life. He is soooo part of my family that I could never let him go.

He is good with kids and babies, let's them try to cuddle him etc...he just .loves any kind of attention.

Citronella sprays are good for furniture...mine scratches nothing other than his scratching post now, and felliway is Fab for when he might get stressed....will defo be plugging that in when baby comes.

He's not allowed upstairs at night or when we're out, so easy to keep him from certain rooms. You can buy special net type covers for moses basket etc to keep them from trying to join baby for a sleep.

I think main issue will be him feeling unloved with baby getting all the attention, so will be making effort to make sure he gets lots of strokes and lap time too.

Soz for long post but my boy has been there for me through thick and thin....so he's with me for life.

Xxx

 

[Jojo84]

My 2 cats were rescue and very nervous around new people but they're also very well behaved. The only issue I have us ever since I got pregnant they keep coming up to me xbx sitting on belly and kneading it... It's like they know there's something in there. They sit with their head in my belly too which they never dud before. I think they'll be find with baby but we'll still keep them away from bedrooms

 

[Ammdaz]

We have two cats (used to have three) and they never got in the cot or took any notice really of ds when he was a baby. They never actually worked out how to get over the stairgates either so that proved really useful for keeping them in/out of rooms. In fact we still have the stairgate at the top of the stairs now even though ds doesn't need it because it means we can stop the cats going upstairs if we want to and they can't scratch it like they can doors. Not sure if my cats are just incredibly stupid bless them but you might find a stairgate does the trick! Xxx

 

[BevG]

i didnt do anything different, my cat goes out to poop etc and his food is given to him in the hall cupboard thats set up as his little room with his bed in it, him and the dogs get on fine so he has free access to the kitchen where the dogs sleep and an open window to go out and in thru. hes never been allowed in the bedrooms and if he clawed my doors id be clipping his nails down lol, since baby he stays out of the main house by his choice as shes loud and likes him too much and he dosent want to be petted by the excited toddler so he stays in the kitchen or his bed and wanders around outside in the sun.

 

[pitterpatter]

Thankyou all girls! lots of cat lovers out there hehe! spoke to oh and we are going to see how it goes for now! : )x

 

[CARNAT22]

I was in exactly same situation (house cat, slept with me on bed etc) and when baby arrived she just made herself scarce.

I remember putting baby down in his car-seat, Amber came and had a sniff and carried on with her normal leisurely afternoon

Once she realised baby cried she didn't like to be in the same room as I so I just left all doors open as normal and let cat decide where she wanted to be? Cat naturally decided she wanted to sleep somewhere else to baby.

It took a while but cat gradually got more used to baby and can now be in the same room as him (she actually loves to prance about in front of him as he adores her!)

Cat no longer sleeps on our bed though, sleep is too precious to have her faffing about and keeping me awake.

Before baby arrived the cat was all over his stuff but now she will not go near anything that is his - pram, cot etc.. Cat's are smart cookies and learn very quickly.

xxxxxxx