Cats...pack And play...crib Tent

We have two Siamese cats, a Chicco Pack and Play (used in the bassinet mode) and crib tent!

It worked great! I actually found the cats on top of the tent a few times (while baby was sleeping) but we never had any issues with the structure. They would try to sleep in it if I didn't zip up the tent when the baby was not itn.

We have the Portable Play Yard Tent by Cozy.

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I saw a thing at Petsmart the other day that had a small motion-sensor on it and blasted out a shot of compressed air when the kitty triggered it by coming too close. I glanced at reviews and people said even though it was spendy (about $35) it completely trained their cats to stay out of certain rooms. I was thinking about it to keep our cat from scratching our house plant/tree. I don't think it was noisy, just surprising, like a spray bottle but without the constant vigilance from you.
Best wishes!

Dear Workinmom,

I loved our Siamese cat, Sam, growing up! And I'm a cats in the house supporter, so I am with you on not limiting MOST of what they are used to doing! I've got a pack'n'play, Graco, though and after thinking about it, unless your kitties are HEAVY they wouldn't be able to collapse the bassinet on the top of mine! The Graco's are secured with rods on each end that snap (pretty securely I think) into the frame of the pack'n'play. I do suggest though not letting them hang out with your newborn until he/she can move away from a cat though. Maybe train the cats BEFORE your due that landing in the bassinet is a BAD idea?

I did find my cat, partial-siamese, in my oldest daughter's crib right by her head, when she was just months old. She was breathing cat fur... I didn't think this was very cool, in fact it was probably quite warm. And my cat wasn't declawed, so there was always the threat of retaliation if she got her hair pulled just right. We started shutting the door completely.
I think cats are great. They do have their pluses and minuses, but you'll know what is best for your baby when it arrives. And what you can handle.

Good luck!
V.

I was going to suggest the screen door too. We got a baby gate to keep the cats out of my sons room, and I wish I had seen that idea before we did. You get a cheap wood frame screen door and put it on the outside of the bedroom door. And when your son gets old enough he can open it himself.

For the pack and play, at Toys R Us and Babies R Us they have a mosquito net for pack and plays. It is just like a big toaster cozy with elastic on the bottom. We got it for when our playpen was in the living room and we all went to bed- I didn't want the cats sleeping in it all the time and shedding all over the place. It is NOT the same as the tent- if the cats jump onto it they will still be in it, but just on top of the net. So I don't know if I would use it unsupervised. But it did train the cats not to jump in because it looks like it is closed on top.

We loved out crib tent!!! We have cats as well and while they never tried to get in our girls cribs, we put it up just in case....
At first I did use it on the pac-n-play and while it was a tad big, we just made it work. I can't remember what we did, but we just tied it up a bit different.
I suppose if my cats had really tried they could have found a way in, but they never did. Now getting the baby in and out is a pain when you are half asleep, but it is worth the piece of mind.
The tent works really well on the crib and fits nicely.... I would say go for it.
Good luck

I was going to suggest what Sarah C. did...Put them somewhere you cannot hear them. You do not need them waking up your children...or you, especially when you have #2 coming around and you'll have less sleep anyways.

Not sure about crib tents for pack and plays. I would look into the specific manufacturer of the crib tent and see if they offer one. If not, maybe put a crib in your room (or wherever the pack and play will go?).

Do you have a basement? Can they go in there? What about in the garage for the night?

Not to be mean but I would not let cats control my sleep or my children's!!!

Good luck!

awww that's SO CUTE!
Congrats for keeping the pets and babies happy together, it makes me really mad when someone is so paranoid about their pets that they opt to lose them just because they had human kids..
You certainly don't want them scratching carpet or 'pack'n'play' netting ...
I wonder if they had a bed-spot (nest) propped up by the baby's crib where they could observe in the comfort of their own 'tree' ..
I remember our first cat sitting on the side of my bed staring at the newborn in the bassinet next to us, but he never went in...

A while ago someone suggested getting an inexpensive screen door. That way the kids can't get out either, if you lock it, or you could attach a latch so it can be secured.
We have a spray bottle with water we get the cats with when they get on the counters.
Also I have had cats all my life and never had them do any harm to the babies. They constantly got into the pack and play and cribs. MIne are declawed.

I had a siamese when I was in high school, and he was very trainable. I never used a squirt bottle, though. My mom and I mostly used clapping and a sharp NO to train him to not get on the kitchen counters (bathroom counters were fine) or tables. The other thing that worked supremely well was a little thump on the forehead with one finger. It doesn't hurt, but cats don't like it! I used that to train all three of my cats.

So I'd set up the pack'n play and let them sniff around it, but thump them or clap and say no if they try to jump in it. They ought to stay away from it entirely after a while. Do the same thing with the baby's crib. If you don't mind them getting into your son's crib, don't train them on that crib. They will learn which crib is okay and which isn't.

Another thing is that we put my siamese to bed in the garage. We installed a cat door in the door that went out to the garage. The cat box and his food was out there, so we left it open all day. But at night, I'd give him a hug and kiss and put him out in the garage, then slide in the little board that locked the cat door. My mom would let him in every morning, and it was so cute how he'd come, meowing all the way, to find me.

We have two very friendly and talkative cats who can be real pests - and I don't know if this would work for your house set-up, but we close them off so they stay just in the kitchen/family room part of the house. Right now we have temporary door that we bring in from the garage every night (yeah, strange, but it works). I'm planning to put a door in that doorway. I allows us to determine when the cats may go say hello to us and our daughter!

You can and should train the cats not to go into the crib or pack and play. I don't know how far along you are, but put out the pack and play early and train the cats not to go in there! Use the spray bottle with water idea and just spray the cats every time you catch them in there. That way when the baby comes they will be trained not to go in there. You can do the same with your older child's bedroom. It can and should be off limits to the cats. Just spray them with water! If you have to pick the cats up, take them out of the room and then hit them with some water. They will learn not to bother with that room anymore.
Good luck!

oh....i have 1 siamese and he is enough.....i get your point!

I don't know what your home layout is, but we lock our cats in the kitchen at night. It's far enough away from the bedrooms that we can't hear them (we also have white noise machines for each bedroom). They have access to their food, water, litter box, and bed there.

If you think a siamese has a yowl, try a bengal! I only say that because that is what I have, and having had both... I empathize with the situation. Our cat though yowls to go outside - he simplycannot stand being inside. Of course I hate this with the foxes outside... but the alternative is waking up the baby. Our kitty slept with us at night every single nigth all night long until the baby came, and then surprisingly really wanted nothing to do with the baby. At all. he didn't get into th epack and play, or the crib, and stayed out of his room for the first year. I am not sure what that is about, but I think the cat knows to leave the fragile baby alone. I suspect yours will do the same, but of course there is no way to know...

You really can't keep a cat out of anythign wihtout a closed door. I have known people with those tent things over the crib - told me they work up to see th etent still there and the cat INSIDE. So... I'm not sure anything really works.
I wish you the best, and believe your cats will know better!!

Your cats aren't "overly friendly" - they're just being cats! They like night time as play time, and they just love to wake people up. The first cat we ever had woke me up an hour before the clock did for nineteen years. And it didn't matter what time I wanted to get up. If I planned to get up at six, McGee started announcing the day at five. If I planned to get up at nine, he started noisemaking at eight. It was really amazing, when I look back on it. But cats think everybody should operate on Standard Cat Time.

My son and his wife preferred to have their cats stay out of bedrooms at night, and he ended up making "screen doors" that were just outside (in the hall direction) of the regular bedroom doors. They latched with hooks, and did the trick. He said they were easy to make, too. And a little catnip in the cat-approved rooms just at bedtime seemed to make the non-bedrooms acceptable substitutes for the kitties.

When I had new babies, our cats thought the bassinet was pretty cool... until strange noises started to come out of it. Then they thought, "What's that noisemaker thing doing in there?" and preferred my bed instead. I've heard that putting aluminum foil around the edges of the bassinet or pack-'n'-play can be helpful, because they won't trust the foil. But I never did try that. If the tent apparatus fits the crib, I'd give it a try BEFORE the baby arrives. If your cats try jumping on it and it collapses, they'll only try it once. Well, maybe twice.

I've heard that installing screen doors works well to keep cats out - we never had a problem with our cat going into our son's pack n play when he was a baby and she stays out of his room for the most part - he falls asleep with his door open but we close the door when we go to bed for fire safety. He's 2 and in a twin bed though.

Good luck!

When my son was a baby, the cat would get into the pac n play with him while he napped. It was so cute, and it never did my son any harm. However, with that said, I had a very good natured cat who was not obnoxious as siamese tend to be. I would suggest that you are probably better off with the cats getting into the crib, than with one of those tents over it for the very reason that the cat could still jump up and either collapse it (if possible), or knock it off into the play pen.

I would like to know why Siamese are so obnoxious. I love mine but sometimes the yowling can really be a pain and I can't leave my bedroom door or my daughters door closed at night now because of Syd and her antics. When my daughter was born my cats wanted nothing to do with her. Maybe they won't like the new baby so much after all they smell funny and make lots of noise. There is a product called FeliWay that you can get at Petsmart.com it is supposed to help decrease stress symptoms in cats by mimicking a pheremone or something and anyway we used it in the babies room and I think it might have kept them away too or at least mellowed them out a bit.