I always treat my cat like I would treat her if she were my 6 month old child. That is one thing that has always been since I adopted her and it will always be until she is no longer around.
One thing I have never had to worry about in all the 7 years she's lived with me is how she is NOT the baby. She is. My daughter is almost 13 and we got this particular cat when she was just shy of 6. The cat's role in our home was "baby".
NOW, flash forward 7 years and there is going to actually BE a new baby. At first, I tried to get her to lie on my belly to feel the baby's movements and she would have NONE OF THAT. She responded by sleeping farther from me in bed at night. She would let Joe pet her instead of me. This was not my cat's usual behavior. All of that changed about a month ago when she started to sleep right between my rib cage and belly. As you can imagine, at around 30 weeks pregnant, there isn't much room in that spot I just described but she scoots right into that little nook while I lie there on my side, unable to move without suffocating her with either boobs or belly.
Cats are strange. First, the deliberate rejection. Then the perfect over-protectiveness. This weekend she turned it up a notch. She will start out in the usual ribcage/belly spot, then when I need to turn to my opposite side, she will stay there for a while in about the same spot on the bed which ends up being about at shoulder blade level. She will nudge in really close to me so that if I lean forward too much, I can't lean back again without probably squishing her to death. Then she will eventually move to my front again.
I am SO happy that she is accepting my pregnancy as a comfy spot under next to me in bed. So happy that I just let her rule me while I sleep. I have also noticed that if she is near my belly, asleep, the baby will kick her and her head or whole body will jolt and she'll just lie there asleep like nothing ever happened. I wonder if it soothes her now. Who knows. I'm just happy I have my snuggle cat back.
The only problem is... how is she going to react when baby girl comes home and occupies a spot in OUR bed? When I was pregnant with my other daughter, my cat freaked out when I went into labor and then I was gone for 2 days. When I came home with Maya, she looked at me, sniffed the baby and ran away. She has hated Maya ever since and she doesn't like ME either. That cat was never like THIS cat, though. She was always a bit "off" to begin with. I was still hurt by her gestures.
Here she is... she basically lays ON me in some way as long as I am sitting where she CAN. I think it's cute.
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