I found that whilst the cats were interested in the bassinet and cots whilst empty, they stayed away from them when there was a baby in there. I watched one of them one day jump up on the cot ready for a nap, only to see bubs in there, so she went elsewhere.
I did a heap of looking around on this awhile ago and could not find one article where a baby had actually be smothered by a cat.
There was a woman in my mothers group who had this ace little cot enclosure thing lol sounds weird but it was on top of drawers, with wooden frame with netting around it and a shelf thing on top, as they had a cat...She explained to me with a laugh that as they had spent 15 years on IVF to get their bubs and weren't ever to have another they didn't want to take any chances with the cat.
Not sure f you can buy them or hubby built it but it was pretty cool
We put a screen door at the top of our stairs so the cats can't get into our room or DS's room, but its only closed at night and cats never tried to get into the basinette or cot. It was useful to get them out of our bed (we part time co-sleep) as both cats liked to sleep in there - and they still come in if I'm in bed and the screen door isn't closed.
When we move to our new house we can't do that though so we'll have to close the door (and maybe put a baby monitor on our shopping list)
The cat was put in the laundry before DD arrived. Just at night time. She got used to it quickly and sometimes she even puts herself to bed. During the day the cat would be outside if I wasn't there to supervise or baby would be behind a closed door.
The cat wasn't really interested in the baby though.
Hi Shell, we have two inside cats. They love to checkout everything, infact, in the past 2 days I have found the male sleeping in the capsule and the pram! grrr. We bought a certain bassinet to discourage the cats, from going near it, and they can't get inside it as it has a canopy net on it. We have had it set up already, and the cats aren't interested in it.
The bassinet is here Valco Baby: ...because you care!
its a valco. Due to the shape of it, my cats can't even jump on it (I was just careful not to place it near the chest of draws, or anything they could jump on to get to it. but they leave it alone anyway)
He hung around alot when I renovated the nursery, he decided one day that the snuggle bed (which was inside the cot) was a nice place for a snooze - then he discovered the comfy baby blanket I had put on the change table.
So I gave him the comfortable blanket, put the side up on the cot and have put up the mosquito net. Now his favorite place in the nursery is on the window sill.
I have been quite vigilant when I leave the back of the house open and whenever I catch moggy sniffing around the nursery door I just say "out" he back chats a bit then leaves without entering the nursery.
We will have to keep an eye on him of course but thats part and parcel of being a pet owner and a to be parent.
TBH I am more worried about cat running off and never coming back because he is not "the baby" anymore
When my cousin was preparing her nursery, she put blown up balloons in the cot to scare the cat away if it jumped into it - think it only ever did it the once.
She also then decided just in case to put a screen door in front of the wooden door as an extra preventative measure too.
My cats are now preparing for the new bub by one of them sleeping on the bouncer and the other sleeping on the change mat - both items are on the top of DS' very tall wardrobe.
Lol my cats are absolutely terrified of babies (especially when they're crying), so we never had a problem with them using the bassinette/cot as a sleeping spot. They sometimes jump in my bed and stick their noses in the bassinette while Squirt is sleeping but as soon as they realise someone else has bagged the cushy spot, the back right off and find somewhere else to spread their hair
When she's not in it, though, I just pop a blanket/sheet in the bassinette so that if they do decide to have a snooze, I can just whip the sheet out when I put Squirt down and she won't get covered in cat hair.
We have two indoor cats... one really likes the nursery however it has always been blocked off to the cats even when it was a spare room. I just kept a low barrier across the door and when they got in trouble enough they learnt not to jump it. I'm not worried about one of my cats as she usually sleeps at the foot of my bed if she does otherwise she finds her own spot elsewhere around the house. My other cat loves to sleep up near my head on my pillow and hates to be locked out of our bedroom. It's him i'm worried about with the cot also. he walks all over us when we are in bed too and he's quite a large cat. however I don't think they will go in the nursery. We were going to get a mosquito net and put around the cot to deter them a bit more, however I do like that cot canopy - thanks for the link. It would be perfect as we have 12 ft ceilings and i hadn't quite figured how we were guna get a mozzie net up that high lol. is the opening on that cot canopy quite large so that you can fit a growing baby in there without knocking their head everytime??
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