[NAGDU] dogs and babies

[Star Gazer]

The baby won’t remember, and that’s fine if that’s what the mom and dad want to do. 
What I found, and I got the same advice, was that I didn’t *want* to let someone else hold the baby.  I wanted to do it. I wanted to get to know them and learn how they responded in a home environment.  I also just absolutely loved holding them and all mine seemed to be hug monsters. They didn’t want their swing or other options until later on.  That was fine with me.  If you want a different configuration, your baby can and will adjust. 

I remember taking my kids to the zoo when they were tiny. They don’t remember it, but I do. I also remember wearing one of my kids in a carrier looking at the B-17 aircraft.  These memories are for you too, and if you *will* remember that you had to hand off your baby to bond with the dog, and if that thought upsets you, you don’t have to do it.      

I also discovered that I wasn’t a fan of people coming over to help. I just wanted the house to myself.  I tend not to like people cleaning up for me. Most have put things where I’ll never find them, and well, it’s just not something I’m a fan of.   

Really, Julie, and you have gotten some excellent suggestions, it comes down to what feels right to you. Remember, you’ll be learning a lot about yourself, your fiancé will be learning, and you two will be learning together along with the baby and dog. Nobody is right or wrong. You’ve gotten some good tips. If you find though that something doesn’t work, that’s fine. 
Our kids never really had a nursery. It was like Boss Baby “He set up his office right in the middle of the living-room”. 

Also, people aren’t in the hospital very long now. I went home with my last in 36 hours. I was fine, I wanted to go home, the nurse wanted me to go (she was a nice lady), we were done with the hospital. 
With my second, she was born right before a blizzard, so nobody could have brought anything home to a dog if I’d had one.

I had some physical complications after my first (not blindness related) so nobody was thinking of the dog I did have at the time. She was well cared for by a puppy raiser who did offer to bring her to the hospital but I was still set up to recive blood and other fluids and to be blunt, the dog wasn’t a priority.  Maybe that’s why the dog didn’t like the baby, but as my husband has pointed out “we’re not here for the dog’s comfort, and we are very lucky to have modern medicine”.  

Know that you’re getting advice from people who had babies recently, all the way back to people who had kids decades ago. Know too that nobody else has your emotions, dreams, hopes, fiancé, all the things that make you a human.    

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Richard via NAGDU
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2021 1:16 PM
To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
Cc: richardfiorello716 at gmail.com
Subject: [NAGDU] dogs and babies

Hi;

My wife and I had two kids while she had her first dog.  Her doctor
suggested that when she gets home let someone else hold the baby for a bit
and give your dog lots of tlc.  The baby won't remember.  My first son
learned to walk while holding on to my wife's dog.  We'd tell him to finish
those vegetables while in his highchair.  He'd start laughing and the dog's
tail started to wag and you know where those veges went.  Son number one now
has two dog crates in his livingroom.  For reasons unknown, my  wife's
second dog decided that her favorite place to be was in my son's closet
which was just fine with him.

Richard

 

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