OK so I know I posted a discussion about how my Bassett Hound is my first child but...now that my little boy is here I am paranoid about having animals (I have a cat too) in the house. I don't want them in any room I have due to hair, fleas (we treat them with Advantage but still are seeing the occasional pest this season AAARRRRGGGHHH), and just dirt that comes with having them around. We don't have a yard really so we have no options but I need to come to grips with the fact that my baby can't live in a bubble. Help me!

Don't worry Mary everything your feeling is normal. We have 4 cats and when I was getting the nursery ready for my daughter I went out of my mind whenever one of the cats went in the room. I didn't want to have to leave the door closed all the time either. What we did,(don't think I'm crazy please), is I went and bought a very nice screen door...just a plain wooden framed one and put it on her room. This way she can be in there with the door open, the room can be open during the day but no cats can get in thus making it practically hair free. The regular solid door can be closed too if we need it to be. It's really great now too because she is three now and likes the door open when she goes to sleep at night but she doesn't want any kitties to sleep with her so we just close the screen door and she can still see out while she is going to sleep. She can open the door just by pushing on it. There is no metal on it and it is very light weight. Hope that doesn't sound too crazy When I came up with the idea I was 8 and a half months pregnant and I think my husband thought I was nuts but now after three years I have had lots of other parents say what a great idea it is and even had a few copy me. Believe me I slept MUCH better at night after we transitioned her to her crib knowing that screen door was in place and no kitty could jump in her crib with her. Hope that helps some.
Good luck.

My husband wants to get a dog desperately, but these are the exact reasons I'm just not ready to take that plunge. I'd rather we be done having children and they be old enough to help out with some of the responsibilities. Right now, the idea of a dog or cat leaving hair or fleas all over the same places where my baby crawls and drools -- ick!!

Sorry, that was really no help.

We have 1 cat and are debating on getting a small dog....I think we have decided to wait until the kids get a little bigger though. They say that exposure to animals as a baby can reduce the chances of many allergies later in life?

We have 3 big dogs and have had them since before K was born. Luckily our entire house is tile so we don't have to worry about all the hair getting into the carpet, but we have to sweep at least once a day. Before K could crawl, we would just put a blanket down on the floor before we would put her down. When she started crawling we had to sweep more but now that she walks it's back to once a day (usually) I can't say how I would feel about it if I had carpet though, just because no matter how much you vaccum it never seems to come out of the carpet. K's bedroom door is usually closed except in the evenings when we are all home and she is playing in there and the dogs are outside at that time anyway. I don't think you should get rid of any animals that you already have (unless, of course, they are aggressive with the baby) without giving it a try to see what will work.

We got Cynder the year before we married and two before Hannah came. She sheds like a maniac, but is so sweet and gentle. I guess I didn't really let the hair bother me too much when the girls were babies. I don't know why. But I see your point. I remember everytime there was a dropped bottle or paci, it had a ton of dog hair (not that I don't vaccum, but she sheds alot) and had to be rinsed. But really that was my only hangup. The grossest (is that a word) thing though is when they were little and still putting all toys in their mouth...sometimes they would find the Kong and before I could get to them had it in their mouth...YUK!

I think what you're feeling is perfectly normal. And if a gate doesn't keep the cat out of the room, then the screendoor idea is pretty doable. (and cool. Wish I'd thought of it And get yourself a good vaccum cleaner.


LEW...I heard the exact opposite about the allergies! Isn't that funny. Just proves that noone knows for sure. I have allergies and so does Hannah. Probably genetic since my mom does too and so does her mom. And they never had animals growing up and we always have. Thankfully, claritin can be taken as early as 2 years old

I was worried about my cat too, for the past 5 years she has been the baby, and when I had my daughter I was worried both about the baby and the cat. The cat usually sleeps on my head at night, but with the baby sleeping in the bed with me, I wasn't sure if that would be a good idea. So I locked the cat out of the room for the first few weeks (I felt so bad), but as it turned out, the cat does not like the baby and does not want anything to do with her. I think she's jealous.

Anyway, the cat won't come into the room if the baby's in there. And whenever the baby cries, the cat hisses. I was so upset that they didn't get along! But now that it's been a few months, the cat is adjusting, she still will not sleep in our room, but she stopped hissing when the baby cries now, and she even let the baby pet her the other day! Yay!

I guess I'm not really worried about hair or fleas, my cat is an inside cat and I grew up with cat hair all over everything so I'm used to it, it really doesn't bother me.

All great responses. I caught the cat in the bassinette today just as peaceful as can be. We will have to get better about the door but we are def not getting rid of anyone. It's not their fault we grew our family and I'm sure no one will be aggressive as our animals are love bugs but cats can be jealouse so we will see. Thanks!

We have several indoor cats and we were very concerned about having them around the baby. What we did was confine the cats to the first floor, which is all tile, and put 2 baby gates (one on top of the other) at the bottom of the stairs so they can't go up. The stairs and bedrooms are carpeted so we didn't want cat hair getting all over the carpet.

So far it has worked out very well. The two bedrooms (one is the nursery, one is our bedroom) are cat hair free, flea free, and the cats are pleased to have the downstairs pretty much all to themselves. The baby has plenty of room to play upstairs.

We are considering putting a door at the top of the stairs, though, just because taking down and putting up 2 baby gates all the time is kind of a pain.

I have 3 big dogs who were my babies prior to my daughter. I was worried about it alot, but the dogs are great with her. My male lets her "pet" him (by pet I mean she squeezes his neck fur/skin and his ear) then turns and licks her. I do wash or purel her hands after touching them (and after I do), and I vacuum alot when they are inside. She's not crawling yet, and I'm sure I'll go to everyday once she is, but right now I do the blanket thing. I do have carpet, but before she was born we bought a Dyson and I LOVE that vacuum. It's amazing what it picks up. I'd probably do 2 passes with it in the living room (only room with carpet she really goes on that they are sometimes on) daily when she starts crawling, but I feel confident it gets most everything. I clean her off, etc.. after they kiss her, but I also figure she'll be petting them when she's older when I'm not there to wash her hands, etc.. and since she loves them I sometimes let it go depending on the degree of kisses. :-) She's 6 mos. now (almost 7) and I'm guessing her immunities have been built up through breastfeeding. Just my thoughts on the subject.

when my babies were very small, our dog was an outside dog. funny story, when i was pregnant, my first baby girl, cookie, would sleep on my stomach if we dared to let her inside and whenever we were outside, she was right by my side. i told daddy that the dog needed to get used to my belly too...well, when we came home from the hospital, not thinking, i set the car seat on the porch while we were unlocking the front door. before i could turn around, miss cookie came to investigate. she sat down right next to the car seat and laid her head on my brand new baby girl. they were inseperable from that point on. my daughter learned to walk holding on to the dogs back.

the lessons and love a child gets from a pet are worth the hair, the fleas and the mess that follows them everywhere. we currently have two bull dogs, one old and very in charge tom cat, a new kitty and our newest addition is a baby raccoon that hubby rescued sunday night. god help me!!!

softballmom we had a baby raccoon about 15 years ago. We named him Smuggler. He was so young when we got him he needed to be bottle fed. He was rescued when some tree workers were cutting down a tree on our street and the mama died but had three babies so we got one. This was down in south Florida and the rescue place didn't have room and they were just going to euthanize him. We had him neutered and he had all his shots. WHen he was still small, (they get pretty big!), he would ride around on our dogs' back (it was a doberman). Ours had a VERY LARGE home built cage, (it was 5 feet high by about 6 x 8 feet in size) He was actually a very good pet but you need to handle them daily to keep them tame. Good luck with it if you keep it.

By the way what you said about the lessons children learn from animals outweighing the fleas, hair etc....is right on

i can't stand keeping it in a cage!

i have a friend that has two. the raccoon seems to be the new "it" pet. you can even find them in pet stores...

she said they are great until they are about 6 months old, even use a litter box. but at about 6 months, they become little destruction devices! she let her's go but they come up every night for supper. that would worry me, i can see him now, bringing a friend home for supper!

I grew up around a bunch of animals...we had everything from horses, goats and even......monkeys...yep...monkeys! My parents got a squirrel monkey back in the day before everyone realized what a bad idea it is to own them! Of course, being a kid, I thought it was the coolest! What's funny is my hubby never really had animals as a kid so we have a totally different perspective on it. I love have them around and would love to get another dog (we have 5 cats and a jack russell) but he won't even think about it. Me and the kiddos are still working on him though..haha