Training the Cat

i have some very grumpy old cats (18 and 13) which feel they rule my house - and yes am pregnant with #1 too

have been getting them into the habit of staying out of the bedrooms by just being really firm - at first I slept with my bedroom door completely closed and whilst they were pissy about it I gave them alot of praise in the morning if they didn't try to break in during the night - after a few nights of no attempts to break down the door I started leaving it ajar and would kick them out if they came in - took a few weeks and me being really firm however they now just stay in the lounge (there is no hallway door so can't close that one)

interesting thing is that because they don't come into my room anymore they don't go into baby's room either - I can now leave the door open during the day and they ignore her room - so hoping that continues, although will be having baby in with me until she is too big for the bassinet

would suggest that you ignore the scratching in the night and see how that goes for a couple of weeks - not easy when you are pregnant and tired

also I have been treating my cats with rescue remedy (just a couple of drops in their water bowl) and they are alot less stressed about the changes to me and their environment

I'm also a bit worried about our cat! He's still very much a kitten although he's almost 1.

We got him from the SPCA the week before we found out we were pregnant (must have been feeling maternal!).

He sleeps in our room for some of the night and will attack DH's hand as soon as he knows he's awake (but not every morning).

some nights he is asleep on our bed when we got to bed, other nights he will come in about 4am and sometimes (when we're really lucky) we will hear from him as it's getting light when he wants breakfast.

On the nights when I'm really unlucky he's waking me up by playing with a present. If you don't get up as soon as you hear the sounds you know a weta will be brought into the room.

My friend's got a 4 month old and her two cats (while being a little older) completely ignore the baby and bassinet. I'm hoping the same may happen to us otherwise it's sleeping with the door closed.

Funny how everyone was telling you that the cats will ignore the baby, I found everyone telling me that I had to kick my 2 cats out of the house or they would sleep on the baby.

Personally I think that every cat is different, I know my 2 are... I thought about setting the moses basket up earlier and then disciplining them everytime they tried to hop into it. Kicking them out of the room was going to be a bit impossible because we were renovating and when DS was born we were sleeping in the lounge (which has no door), cause all the bedrooms were out of action (the carpet went down 4 days before and the power got hooked up 2 days before... fun times!)

I never got around to setting up the moses basket beforehand, but I need not have worried, it was the funiest thing our dog would not let the cats into the same room with DS for at least a month after he was born, if they tried to come in, she would growl and chase them away.

So I can't really say if the cat will or won't be interested in baby, sometimes they come over and check him out, but being typical cats most of the times they are more interested in themselves.

I know when you move baby into its own room, you are afraid to close the door, cause you want to hear it cry, I was the same even though the room is right across the hall, we ended up having to close the door not becuase of the cats, but because he sleep better with it closed. But what you could do is put a baby gate across, we put one in to stop DS from getting from the newly renovated bedrooms and hall into the new construction zone and it has had the unexpected effect of keeping the cats out of the bedrooms cause the bars are to narrow to squeeze through and maybe because it is one of the extra tall gates, they won't jump it either (which is werid cause they jump the fence which is much higher). They too are used to having the run of the house and will scratch doors to get in (if they can't open them themselves), but I don't know why but they have just accepted this gate.

Thanks for all your comments, they have been really helpful. Our cat is lovely....but he is arrogant, massive and his toleration levels are non-existant. He even swipes at DH or I for no particular reason. During the day I can moniter what goes on, its just at night I worry.
I will set up the babies room in another month or so and put some tilfoil in the basinet. I've also heard they hate citrus fruit so might pop a basket of lemons in the room too! I could always get a latch for the door so we can leave it open a smidge but small enough so the cat cant get in. I'm hoping he doesn't want a bar of her - I guess I'll soon find out and can deal with it then.

Our Older (and rather large cat) has no tollerance for us either - he has regular play fights that get quite rough with DH! BUT he's amazing with kids.... so he may just surprise you

Exactly we just dont realise how much of a pain spoiling them can be till its time for someone else to be the 'baby' hehe

But we wouldn't have it any other way!

You could try blowing up some water balloons Kiwiking? Cats dont like the popping noise

Gowd I'd hate to attempt to keep our cats off the bench, they think we are just there to serve them and its their god given right to just do as they please!

when my 15 year old was due I had trouble keeping my 2 cats out of his cot. They would sleep in there all day and I was constantly having to kick them out. But once he was born they stayed away.

Also one was a kitten and used to follow me everywhere wanting to sleep on my lap. He never forgave me I recon for having a baby lol. He became alot more independant after baby came.

Will try balloons!

Our cat only sits on our faces when he wants us to get up and give him breakfast. He has shifted from 4am to 6am and has been doing less sitting on faces and more nudging.

I think we have broken our cat! Since we put a piece of carboard up against the hall door we haven't heard a scratch out of him. This morning he was sleeping in his bed when I got up - yay! Few more weeks of that and I reckon he will get the picture.

I won