Pets and baby

Following! 1 dog and 2 cats to try and keep calm with zero ideas other than having some of the used babies blankets around for them to sniff 😅 😭

that's how we introduced them to each other, so will do the same for the baby 😅

I have a 9yo whippet cross who is very attached to me but also avoids babies 😂 (or at least the ones I know she's met so far haha) My partner and I plan on doing what we normally do when we come home from anywhere and call her outside asking her if she needs a pee (we live in a flat so we don't have our own garden) while we have baby with us, then all of us go in together once shes come out, had chance to go toilet and said hello to us like she normally would. She is very much a dog of habit and patterns and it's what we do when bringing anyone new over, so we plan to do it when bringing baby home too. It means she ends up paying little to no attention to the additional human walking into our flat that isn't me or her dad x

I've also been letting her sniff absolutely everything that is for our baby as she's quite curious about all the new things as we've been getting them. Letting her be involved in the changes in the home. Now I'm 38+5 and when we bring home new baby stuff she isn't bothered as she's now "bored" of the baby stuff which is what we wanted lol

With my first baby, she’s now 3yo
We used a muslin cloth that we made sure had baby’s scent on and we didn’t touch at all. And put in our dogs bed.
Dog loves daughter and follows her around.

When daughter got to toddler stage, she pulled in dogs fur but never told dog off if she grumbled just told daughter off.

Never leave child and animal in room alone with each other.

Didn't do too much but made sure the dog had a safe space well away from baby to retreat to if needed and still gave him 1:1 time when baby was down. He adjusted really well, as if the baby had always been there, when we came home we let him have a good sniff whilst one held baby and the other stroked/loved him. He's been bffs with my son since!

We have a 2 year old staffy who is about 2 weeks older than my step daughter (I also have a 4 year old step son) he’s literally grown up around the kids but has taken till now to be calm enough for them consistently (for the most part) little girly is obsessed with him which helps 😂

Our plan for little one is to just hold him by the collar and let him have a calm sniff then pretty much business as usual. . . He’ll never be unsupervised anywhere near the little ones and we have quite high standards of what is appropriate contact and excitement levels when he’s in the same room as the kids or visitors so we’ll just continue working with him.

Not overly concerned as he’s a good boy and loves the kiddies he just doesn’t realise his own size sometimes so we have to manage that for him by not putting him or them in silly situations where any of them could get hurt.

And he’ll be sleeping in the same room as us from night one so worst case he’ll just be banished while we’re feeding and doing nappy changes but other than that like others have said he’s not overly bothered by any of the baby stuff other than trying to steal teddies for himself 😂

Honestly I don’t think there’s any special recipe for success. I’ve got 8 animals and an 18 month old. When I brought her home from hospital I kept her with me let the dogs have a sniff and never looked back. The cats couldn’t have cared less. Best advice is to make sure you’re still attentive to your dog as busy as your life is going to get. I enjoyed walking mine 1:1 during the evenings when my partner would stay with our baby and I am SO ready for little man to arrive to start that up again. Summer evening walks are the best. Also if you already know your dog is going to be jealous, get your babe involved. Pets tend to deter from baby pincer hands for obvious reasons but teach your babe manners as they’re growing. Open palm strokes, leave the dog alone when eating/sleeping etc. my 18 month old is kinder to all her animals than most adults are. Southend dog training is fab with advice too. But a lot of the responsibility is on us as parents to monitor for dogs/cats feelings 🥰

I'm planning on getting our cat used to the baby gear around the house then when shale arrives slowly introducing them, let our cat have his space, she's not going to be able to terrorize him just yet!