Many of you have asked how the creepy baby doll experiment is going.
You see, Maggie is used to spending approximately 10 hours a day in my lap. It’s been like this every single day since I started to work from home at my old job nearly four and a half years ago. In case you’re counting, that’s about 16,425 hours in my lap.
Of course, when the baby comes, Maggie’s life is going to change. I still plan to hold her in my lap every day (when the Husband is holding the baby, we’re all sitting on the couch, or the baby is sleeping or playing) but her lap time is, obviously, going to drastically decrease. Our biggest concern with the dogs is that we don’t want to totally flip their lives upside-down one day – we imagine that would be emotionally distressing and make them resent the baby – so we’re trying to make lots of little changes slowly over time. Our goal is to make the five of us one big, happy family.
So, we bought a creepy baby doll for $1 at a consignment sale, and I’ve been sitting with the doll in my lap about half of the time that I’m the computer. I look like a nut, but it’s really helping Maggie figure things out (which is a miracle – Maggie isn’t the brightest crayon in the box). When my lap is occupied, she doesn’t really try to get up; she just sits in the doggie bed next to me. And when my lap is free, she knows it’s cuddle time.
Next up on our list of doggie behavioral tweaks (the first tweak was getting James used to sleeping in his cozy cave, which he now loves!): playing YouTube videos of crying babies to get them used to the sound.
In other news…
Happy Valentine’s Day! Can you spot the two mystery hearts?
Per our holiday tradition, I received breakfast in bed (next year is the Husband’s turn). He made me a wonderful egg and cheese sammie.
Can any other furmommas weigh in on how they prepared their beloved pups for the baby?
“Creepy cosignment baby doll” sounds like a great idea. It’s sweet of you to consider how your pups will react to your growing family!