Need a favor from any new parents

[Shikarnov]

Hi All,

My wife is pregnant with our first child, and we have two cats to prepare for the eventual arrival. One of the recommended ways to help the cats adjust is to play recordings of babies crying. But the only clips I can find online are short, would be over quickly (which won't work for automatic playback in the soon-to-be nursery at 2AM).

If you have an infant, would any of you feel comfortable recording his his or her cries with your phone and sending it to me?

Thanks for your time,

Z

[teacake]

You don't have to prepare cats.

[B.J.]

Yeah, they may be out of sorts for a few days, but they get over it. Had 3 kids with cats in the house, no problems really.

[Gaith]

... And you'll no doubt have plenty o' crying soon enough. Enjoy the quiet!

[Crusher Disciple]

Don't sweat it- the cats will be cranky for a while, and then they'll get over it. They hate change, but they're perfectly capable of adapting.

You'll get a guilt trip, but they'll get over it.

[teacake]

Or they won't even notice. OR they will want to sleep on or near the baby to claim it as new territory. That bit you might want to watch out for initially.

[Rhaven]

Cats don't like change initially, but get over it quickly enough. The crying of the child may scare them at first, but even that will soon be ignored with the usual feline indifference.

[TheSeeker]

We have two cats and bringing our daughter home had no impact on them. I wouldn't worry about it.

And Congratulations!

[SmoothieX]

My parents had a cat when I was born. The brought me home from the hospital, the cat took one look at me, and ran out the back door never to be seen again.

[SeerSGB]

teacake wrote:

---

Or they won't even notice. OR they will want to sleep on or near the baby to claim it as new territory. That bit you might want to watch out for initially.

I was going to mention that. We has cats when my oldest were born and the two biggest issues we had was them wanting to sleep on the baby or getting overly affectionate/acting up when the baby was getting more attention than them. Took 'em a couple of weeks but they soon got bored with it all and went back to their old routine.

[Shikarnov]

Thanks, everybody, for your replies. Your opinions and experiences are most appreciated.

[bbailey861]

We also raised cats with all our kids. No issues at all. As soon as we came home, we always laid the baby on a blanket on the floor and allowed the cat(s) to have a good smell. There were never, never, never, any issues at all. We were always careful doing this - just in case - but there just wasn't anything. Often after that, when we plopped the baby down on the floor on a blanket with toys, etc. the cats would lie down beside.

[thestrangequark]

teacake wrote:

---

Or they won't even notice. OR they will want to sleep on or near the baby to claim it as new territory. That bit you might want to watch out for initially.

My sister and her husband lined the crib with tin foil to train the cats not to jump into it before the baby was born, I think that was the only real preparation they did.

[Draculasaurus]

We have four cats, one is especially high strung.
When my wife got pregnant we were worried about how they would react. They definitely knew something was going on, and were acting weird.
The funny thing is; The pregnancy freaks them out more than the baby. I guess you smell different when you're pregnant, and they find it disturbing.
To our surprise, once we brought the baby home the cats seemed relieved, like everything was back to normal.
I wouldn't worry about it too much. Even though they are a different species, once they got a chance to smell the baby they understood instinctively that she was part of the family.

[Mr Awe]

There's really no need to prepare cats. Unless there is some very specific, unusual behavior that you know you need to resolve beforehand.

Mr Awe