“How do you think the dogs will react to the new baby?”
That was easily the most frequently asked question during the pregnancy…except for, maybe, towards the end when “Has the baby arrived?” topped the list. Of course, no one can really know for sure how a dog will react to a strange, new, crying human, but we typically answered with…
“I think it should go pretty well. We think Juneau will be the calmer one and maybe Scout will accidentally kick her in the face since she doesn’t really know her size.”
We were right about it going pretty well, at least.
We had taken our dogs to daycare the day we THOUGHT I was going to be induced. Our daycare was super accommodating and allowed us to make tentative reservations near our due date, despite being right in the middle of spring break. When I ended up having a c-section, we asked if we could keep the dogs in daycare a little longer. I was a little afraid of them jumping near my incision.
We ended up getting the dogs a week after Rosemary was born. Chris’s mom volunteered to pick them up, which was super helpful since our daycare is near our old house. Our plan was to have my mom in a different room with Rosemary so we could greet the dogs on their own first. Then, we would have my mom bring Rosemary out and we’d show her to them.
The plan worked out well because…
- They got to smell all of Rosemary’s things before meeting her
- They got some of their crazy excitement out before being near a newborn
- Greeting them on their own (presumably) made them know that they were still a priority for us
Juneau was the first to either be brave enough to greet Rosemary or notice her. She was definitely curious and kept sniffing her all over.
Scout greeted her shortly after June. She was surprisingly gentle. In fact, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how sweet Scout has been around Rosemary since meeting her. Whenever Rosemary cries, Scout runs over and wants to check on her. She also likes to periodically check on Rosemary when she is sleeping by sniffing her head or licking her toes. Juneau has been more aloof, but has been very patient with the crying.
The below picture is so sweet! Look at Scout checking on little Rosemary!
The dogs periodically seem a little sad about the shared attention, but we try to make sure they get plenty of snuggles on their own.
The below photos were later that day, after our one week photos, but I love Rosemary’s face reacting to seeing the doggies!