A friend recently told me that her sweet cat is having serious concerns with all things baby that are now filling their home, & all before baby arrives in a few weeks. Listening to her inspired this post because bringing a little human to meet your fur-children is a seriously nerve racking thing & even when you map everything out perfectly it may not go according to plan, but sometimes ends up being even better.
When we first came home with Cooper the plan was for the dogs to have already smelled something of his, a hat for example. Then per instructions from our vet Sierra (our 9 year old Corgi Bassett) & Scooter (our 5 year old Bassador) would be home when we arrived. I would go into the house first & greet them since it had been longer since they had seen me, combined with all my new smells, then Eric would follow with baby in his car seat. Tail wagging would ensue & everyone would be instant friends. Right?? Nope.
When you have the complications I had (read Cooper's Birth Story
HERE for more on that) you're on bed rest in the hospital while coming off of the medications. So for the day after Coops arrived everything was on Eric. I couldn't even get out of bed to change baby or take his picture, let alone carry him. My only task was nursing.
The following day was a little better, I could shuffle slowly around the room but would get shooting back pains from the epidural causing me to lose my breath & stop moving until the waves passed.
So needless to say the puppies never got a chance to sniff something of Cooper's before we arrived home. And on top of that they were still staying with friends when we left the hospital.
The plan turned into when we get home & settled, Eric would go fetch the dogs (dog pun intended). Nope again. About 20 minutes after arriving I about collapsed in our hallway from pain & chills ensued.
Cue mom who, thank goodness, came immediately over to help. There I was, less than 30 minutes in & bedridden with a 3 day old newborn. Per our midwife even a slight fever with me meant going back to the hospital. What. The. Heck. Thankfully no rising temperature & turns out I just had some serious epidural side effects that began subsiding shortly after.
Eric ran out to get a few things my midwife said would help (i.e. LOTS of Motrin) & gather up the fur-children. When they arrived Eric let them in a room to meet Coops one at a time. They were beyond excited to sniff EVERYTHING, even pushing open the door to meet baby.
But immediately following that our younger pup decided he couldn't be in the same room as Cooper & proceeded to sulk for weeks. We were completely torn over what to do but gave Scooter the time he needed, which as it turns out was the best thing we could have done for him. Over the following days he went from spending evenings in his crate to laying at the top of the stairs, to sitting at the bottom of the stairs to perching on the couch next to us to curling up by me when I nurse.
Our older pooch (Sierra) was perfect from the beginning. Immediately going into protector mode, not letting baby out of her sight, even going so far to check on him before she'd start eating her dinner. It was the sweetest most wonderful experience from the get go with her.
Fast forward to 4 months & the only problem we have now is Scooter (younger pup) trying to play with baby & not realizing he's being too rough. But in a couple years I can already see the three of them running around the yard, a far cry from those first couple weeks home & everything I ever hoped it would be.
