Preparing Your Dog for the New Baby While You Are Pregnant Part 2

Several months back, I wrote a blog about helpful tips on preparing your dog for a new baby's arrival. This is a follow up to that blog with more of Jeremy's, my husband, and my experiences in the matter. I'm 6.5 months now, and we found out when I was 5 months that we are having a baby boy! I realized I'm going to be the only girl in my household and completely surrounded by boys: my husband, our two dogs, Petey and Harley, and now our son, Christian. I'm officially outnumbered! We are in full "baby prepare mood" since my last blog post! We are getting the house ready, and, needless to say, that's a huge job in itself! Plus, we are making sure everyone, including our doggies, are as prepared as possible before my due date.

Early on in my pregnancy, we spoke with our family and friends that have already had experience with owning a dog and then starting a family. That initiative has really paid off for us. Plus, taking the time in conversations with our vet and doing some additional research on our own has helped us even more to feel confident that our dogs’ transition will go as smoothly as possible when Christian arrives. A few important things that we are keeping in mind to help our family’s transition includes: exposing our dogs to everything baby, making it clear where their boundaries are when it comes to the baby, and for us, to remember this is a huge change for everyone in our family, including our furry members.

In my previous blog, I touched on exposing your dog to everything baby. I feel this will really help ensure our dogs, Petey and Harley, will be acclimated even before the baby gets here. We did this by letting them be around all of the baby items we've gotten and any gifts we may have already received. Plus, we took advantage of any chance we had to expose them to infants and/or small children. Some of our family and friends have already started families of their own, so we would set a time for our dogs to be around them. This helped Petey and Harley become comfortable with the scents, noises, gadgets and smells soon to be part of their lives. Once Christian is here, we plan on letting them smell all his blankets, clothes, and etc., before we wash them. That way, they will be familiar with his scent quickly.

Just like children, dogs need boundaries, too. We have trained Petey and Harley not to come into the baby's room, unless they get permission from one of us. They will stop at the doorway and wait patiently until they are allowed into the room. Jeremy and I wanted to make sure the pups know how special Christian's room is and that they do not have free range when it comes to it. There are a few other rooms in our house they do not have free range to, so this was an easy adjustment for both of our dogs. We made sure all of their dog supplies, like their dog food, dog treats, water and dog toys, are in rooms where they are not restricted.

As we have been preparing ourselves and our dogs these past 6 months for Christian's arrival, we know that our lives will change and are very aware how much Petey's and Harley's lives will change, too. With that said, we have discussed different ways to make sure we have some sort of balance with providing them the care they need and deserve even after Christian is here. We talked about making sure they still get their daily exercise, attention, and some play time with us. Of course, we know it will be an adjustment, and we will be playing it all by ear until Christian has a set schedule himself. We will all have to be a little bit more flexible. So, if a walk is going to be out of the question to do daily, then we will switch it up by doing a game of fetch with their favorite dog toy. That way, they are getting some exercise and playtime, and we can do this with Christian close to us in his playpen. When Christian is sleeping, we plan on giving the dogs one-on-one time, with belly rubs, playing, or just them laying on our laps. We have even planned and set up for one of our friends to take care of our dogs once I go into labor and during our stay at the hospital. At least for me, there is comfort in knowing that Jeremy and I have discussed their care, and there is a plan in place. We want to make sure our whole family's needs are being taking care of. That includes our furry family members, too.