We have 2 labs, one giant and one small, and a kitty. They are our furkids, so before we even get started, this post is *not* about re-homing or anything like that, it's not an option.

Our situation at the moment is, the doggies sleep in our room on the floor, and usually come up on to our bed halfway through the night (it's a king size so it's not too squishy, except when the big one insists on lying across the bed instead of length ways ). The cat also usually sleeps snuggled with me or somewhere in the house.

The cat, I'm thinking, is going to have to be shut out of our room whilst the baby is in a bassinet with us, and then later shut out of it's room, to avoid her getting in with the baby The dogs however shouldn't be able to actually get to the baby whilst it's in it's bassinet or cot (obviously we would always be in the room at the same time, wouldn't leave baby unattended with doggies), so I'm thinking it shouldn't really be a problem. But MIL keeps saying she doesn't think we should have them in with us anymore once bub is here. There is an option to have them out in the front room, but I don't know if this is going to be necessary.

So my question is, if you were ever in a similar situation to us sleeping wise, what was your experience? What did you do? Did your dog/s continue to sleep in your room, or did you kick them out?

Interested to hear other people's stories =)

Watching this thread. Right now I'm in bed with a dog tucked up against me. A baby can just fit in on the other side, right?

I'm all for keeping the doggies in with you, but maybe see if you can train them to sleep on a bed on the floor. I've slept before with dogs and babies in the same room with me and there's been no issue, and everyone's happy. I never found any jealousy from my dog with the baby, but my dog's personality is very much of being a watcher and giant shaggy sheperd for the kids in his pack, so it's all worked out nicely. With the cat issue, I'd keep the cat out of your bedroom just by closing your door at night. In saying that, my moggie did very occasionally creep in with me and the baby and there was no issue at all regarding baby's safety or health.

Hi there,
we too have labradors and cats, who are all primarily inside. When we eventually have our baby, the dogs and cats will still be allowed to sleep inside, but not in the same room as the baby. I know that labs malt a lot, and that factor alone would put me off.

I would not trust my dogs to sleep in the same room as bubs. You can't see what they are up to when you yourself are sleeping. Also, you want your dogs to know that they are beneath your child in the pecking order,having dogs on the bed is obviously not conducive to this. I would suggest getting your dogs off the bed, and sleeping in another part of the house before the baby comes.

Good luck with everything!!

MILs always seem to make comments like this! Mine was horrified that we would even CONSIDER keeping our gorgeous German shepherd around a defenseless baby. I say lucky we did, she cleans up the food the kid spills on the floor better than any mop I've ever bought

With the bedroom issue, it depends on the temperament of your dogs. They may actually prefer to sleep on the floor or at the door if your baby is a restless or noisy one. Also, if you're BFing you may find that the baby ends up sleeping the last half of the night in bed with you, and it's probably not a good idea to share with a newborn and dogs. Too much going on, IYKWIM? I actually kicked the dogs right out of the room because one is a shocking snorer and I kept tripping over the other one in the middle of the night when I got up to feed - she's a walkway sleeper.

Whatever choice you make, instigate it NOW, so the dogs don't associate it with the arrival of the baby and get jealous.

No advice on cats, sorry!

A friend of mine installed a flyscreen door in their baby's bedroom doorway so they could see and hear her, but the cats couldn't get in. It's not difficult to set up. Is that an option?

When DS1 was born we had a Ridgeback who was definitely my baby. He would sit on my lap when I watched TV. DH worked afternoon shift and the dog slept on his side of the bed.

DS1 slept in our room with the dog sleeping on the floor next to his bassinet. There was no way in hell once we were all in bed that he was leaving the side of the baby. He was so protective.

By the time DS2 was born our Ridgeback had passed away. We got a staffy when DS2 was only about 12 months old. She is a very pampered pet now and sleeps on the bed. Either that or on rugs on the floor but as DH now drives interstate trucks and is often not home at night the dog sleeps on the bed with me.

DS2 has always started off in his own bed but ends up in our bed by about midnight. The dog just moves over to give him enough space to climb in.

About 2 weeks ago DH was home. DS2 climbed in as normal, dog was on the end of the bed and then DS1 (8yo) had a nightmare and ended up in with us too.

We had 1 DH, 1 mummy, 1 staffy, 1 8yo and 1 4yo in a queen size bed.

I trust my dogs with my kids but I still never leave them alone together.

We were in the same situation when I was preg with DD. As soon as we found out we got Cybil (our staffy) to sleep in a bed at the door to our room and then slowly moved her out into the hall then the living-room. We didn't want to do it when the baby came home because we thought this might cause tension as Cybs might think she was being replaced. Worked great for us. I did read somewhere that the mystical "they" recommend that you don't let pets into the child's room even when the child isn't in there not sure why though.

THe day before we bought DD home DH bought a wrap DD had been wrapped in home and let Cybby smell it and then we introduced them as soon as we got home. Very quietly and calmly and we've had no problems. I think that if we kept Cybs away from DD she'd probably be more suspicious or excited about being near her and problems would have occurred. At present if DD cries Cybs sits next to the cot and cries too (its too cute) and is really good with DD... except she loves to lick DD's feet!

Having said that when DD moves out of our room we'll Cybil will probably resume her place in our room

Good luck!!!

I found that the cat wasn't an issue - although I've heard the urban myths of cats suffocating babies, I've never "seen" it happen? (Not personally watched, but heard of a real scenario. It's always been a "they say .........".) I was vigilant about keeping the cat out, but she never, ever, jumped in the cot, bassinet or pram - baby or no baby.

I had to ban the dog from the bedroom while I was pregnant anyway - every time I got up to go to the loo she was "up", and took ages to resettle. And I stumbled over her a couple of times, which made me worry about doing that when I was carrying the baby. I also wouldn't have handled the noise factor. I was up enough feeding the baby and dealing with my bladder, trying to make DH stop snoring etc. Add a dog on top of all that, and I would not have slept at all.

I also often changed the baby on the bed in front of me before/during a night feed, and she would have been "there", trying to lick the baby etc. She was a very big and nosey weimarana.

Having said all that, I found it more of an issue when the kids started eating - they were both happy to "share" with the dog = one lick for me, one lick for doggy, one for me, one for doggy. And the dog was a terrible thief too. Not only was the floor cleaned, but the plates, faces, and anything else with crumbs.

So I ended up with baby gates on quite a few doorways - some to keep kids contained, others to keep the dog away.

Our staffy who slept on our bed used to come up and put her head on my lap as I breastfed my DDs in our bed. She continued to sleep on our bed, but we did not co-sleep with our DDs. She adjusted beautifully to each new arrival.

I haven't done it yet.

Buuut... I co-slept with my parents. So did my little siblings. They said the cats would jump in the crib at the least excuse (which got my mom in crap from HER parents) but they actually ignored me, and my younger siblings as babies.

I don't think they did anything to keep the cats out of the room, either, just the cats mostly chose not to be in the bed with the unhousebroken squealy thing. She said one of the friendliest cats would try to snuggle next to me, but was easily just picked up and moved away.

I remember him from when I was a toddler but not a baby, obviously. He was a very chill cat.

If the baby is in a bassinet/cot next to your bed, I don't really see an issue with the dogs at all. Maybe shut the cat out? Or get one of those bassinet mosquito screens.

In bed with you, I'd only worry the dog would accidentally step on the baby.

I am sure an expert will come in soon with some advice (seriously, not sarcastically), but my advice would be, whatever you are going to do, start now, not when the baby comes, or a week before the baby comes.

Thank you everyone! I think we will probably train them to sleep more often on the floor and only come up on to the bed when asked, then we can avoid them jumping up and accidentally squishing the little human. I'm only 10 weeks now so I think we'll have a bit more time yet with them up with us (my hubs loves snuggling with them, more than with me haha) and start training them at prob about 5/6 months. We recently trained them to no longer jump on our big couch (it was turning into an $800 dog bed, not happy) and it only took about 2/3 weeks, so we should be good to start at 6 months =)

As for the cat, I think in general we wont have a problem, she hides from little people, but we will keep a careful eye on how she is acting and if she's getting too friendly we will put her in the living room at night.

Thanks again for everyone's advice!

We have our dogs in our room with us and our 5 week old baby. They slept on our bed but we transitioned them to doggy beds before baby was here. The still sometimes get on the bed but only at our feet end but its not a huge issue

Our two dogs sleep in a crate in our bedroom. They have since they're puppies and no need to change when DS came along. The only difference now is instead of the puppies asking to go out in the morning, DS stands at their crate and asks me to let them out for him to play with them.

Do you think you could try that? They'd still be with you, but you're 100% sure where they are during the night.

Agree 100%

Things we did that helped (I think):
Changes of routine for furbaby occured months before baby arrived. (but there weren't many)
Gave him plenty of affection before and after baby arrived.
Gave DH baby clothes to take home before we came home so he (the dog, not DH) could get used to baby scent.
First thing I did when home from hospital was take baby to meet dog.
Dog continued to sleep in our room at night, on the floor as he did prior to baby coming home. (baby was in bassinette / or our bed in our rrom).
I remember siting on the floor, dog laying on one side, baby on other patting/stroking them both and telling the dog he was still loved and that now he had a mew family member to protect etc. While he wouldn't understand the words, I'm sure he got the message from my actions and tone of voice etc.

I too was worried about our cat, unfortunately she died when I was 3 months pregnant. I am pretty sure she would not have been sleeping in the same room as us and the baby though, I was too worried about smothering.

Good luck.