New Baby + Kitty =

It's been a while since I've had a Kitty story. Truth be told, she's sort of gotten the raw end of the deal since Peanut arrived. Hubby's parents came for a visit and his mom said that Kitty was looking "a little ragged". Truer words could not have been spoken. 


I was wondering how Kitty would adjust to having a baby in the house. She has always been an interesting sort of cat. She loves attention, but only on her own terms. If you ignore her, she finds a way to get your attention. Usually by being incredibly annoying: boxing a gift bag, attacking a small plastic item and batting it across the wood floor, trying to crawl into a super loud plastic bag, jumping on your lap while you are trying to do something, or scratching at our nice leather kitchen chairs. Since my labour was so unexpectedly long, poor Kitty was home alone for 3 days. When Hubby finally came home the night Peanut was born, I am sure she thought she had been abandoned and was angry at the intrusion into her new kingdom. 


The first time we brought Peanut home, she ran to the door all happy to see us, until we put down the car seat. She freaked out. But being curious to a fault, she slowly crept up to check him out. The second she got close he let out a little squeak and she tore off down the stairs. Since then, she has made a sort of peace with the little man. She is super protective over him, however she refuses to get too close. She will get as close as possible to him without actually being near him. She goes to the edge of our bed and peaks over the edge of the basinette to check on him, and if he is crying she gets upset and looks at us like we are the worst parents EVER. 

Baby gift bags? Hardly. More like super-awesome Kitty forts!

However, she is suffering from a severe lack of being the centre of attention. The laser pointer hardly ever comes out anymore, and her annoying list of attention-getters has been getting more and more elaborate. Specifically, she has taken to NEEDING cuddles in the middle of the night. And only from me. She jumps on my stomach and then crawls all over me trying to find a spot to get comfy. She crawls up by my head, then down on my chest, then usually perches herself on the most awkward place possible, balancing precariously on my shoulder or hip or some other ridiculous place and begins to purr her little Kitty face off. Needless to say, this didn't go over well when I was getting up every hour and a half to nurse and was severely sleep deprived. However, it became very clear that any attempt to thwart her plan would be met with renewed determination to get what she wanted at all costs. Her tiny Kitty brain becomes so focused on something that she will stop at nothing to get it. So now, I give in and just let her pretend to sleep for those 20 minutes on my bent knee, even though I know she is just trying with all her might not to fall off. 


So basically, I have now become the most wanted person in the household. Peanut cries in the middle of the night, so I get up and nurse him and cuddle him back to sleep. Just as I'm about to fall back into the blissful abyss, Kitty leaps up and starts her balancing act. Once she finally has enough, Hubby rolls over and throws his arm over me for a cuddle. 


It's hard not to feel loved in a house where cuddles with me are so in demand.