Pets & Pregnancy/Pets & Babies #2

[Kirley64]

I have two indoor cats. One is almost 3. she is a beautiful Balinese cross..... she is queen of our house. she only likes pats when she wants them and she will meow angrily at you if she wants something that you aren't giving it to her. lol. you can just call her name in an angry manner if she is doing something wrong and she knows and stops what she is doing or leaves the room she's not meant to be in. The other one is just a domestic short hair. he is 1 1/2 and fat lol. he is sooo smoochy and is my baby. he follows me around the house, meows for food or attention. He doesn't really listen like the other one does, however when my husband yells at him he knows he's in trouble (or if you take a step towards him when calling his name he runs); to dicipline him we flicked his ear and he learnt that he gets that when hes being naughty. When i do it, it doesnt' always work, however he doesnt' like it when my husband flicks his ear. He just has to hold his fingers in front of his face like he's about to flick him and he stops what he is doing.

Our cats have hardly ever been allowed in the room that will now be the nursery however they do love to explore it. we have always just had a board up in front of the door (it is low enough that they can jump it sometimes but in a year they have only ever jumped it about 5 times which is pretty good odds), so i am just going to replace it with a solid baby gate. they do like sleeping in the bed at night, however for the last month i have started locking them out at night. My little boy doesn't like it, he wakes up every morning at 4.20 and scratches continueously until i get up and either feed him or yell at him several times. I physically have to make him sit on the couch and tell him to stay. Trying not to get into a habit of feeding him.
Some days it works some it doesn't. If we leave the door open he comes and lies at my head and insists i pat him. Dont really want him to lie at the babies face like he does to me.
alot of family are warning us about cats and babies, trying to convince them otherwise but they dont seem to listen... wow sorry for the long post

[tk1999]

Originally Posted by tk1999

Does anyone know about getting parrots prepared for bubs arrival... the bird hates me... yes it is a strong term but this bird is a one owner person and it loves DP to bits (I think it is a girl parrot but DP says it is a boy, that is what he was told when he got him and there is no changing his mind!)

The bird has never attacked me... well it has tried to bite me when I am tending to his cage but doesn't fly to attack if that makes sense... he can fly (despite having his wings clipped in January 09 and being told they only need to be done once a year)

My main concern is the sqwaking... I know it is better to have bubs sleep somewhere with noise so that they don't get used to only sleeping when it is quiet but I think general noise and a parrot sqwaking because it has separation from DP anxiety are slightly different - so just wondering if anyone has experience with parrots and bubs

Thanks Megsmum for the advice re parrots! Sorry I didn't reply earlier

Well to update... DD arrived early and we hadn't really got a chance to get Tyson (parrot) used to the idea of a little one being in the house.

DD was in SCN for the first 15 days of her life and when she came home DP introduced Tyson to her... he was not phased in the foggiest.

He still sqwaks but not as much as he used to but it doesn't matter really as DD sleeps through it... from the loudest and most frequent sqwaks to the little irritated sqwaks!

[BOC]

My dog definitely knows something is going on. In the first few weeks she was constantly sniffing me, I guess she could smell the change in hormones. By about 10 weeks she had stopped trying to climb all over me & would just sit quietly on my lap with her front paws resting on my belly. My DH thinks she's "protecting" me. She never leaves my side when she's inside.

The other night I was reclining on the lounge and she came and laid across my lap with her head against me, her ear against my belly. It was sooooooo cute! It was like she was trying to listen to the baby. I only wish I'd had the camera with me. It didn't last long though, bubba wasn't impressed and gave her a kick. She gave me a bewildered look as if to say "What was THAT???" and then climbed down and sat on the cushion beside me