Before I had my human baby, I had my fur baby Digby. Many years ago my husband and I fostered “troubled” dogs and Digby was our “unadoptable” dog, so when we couldn’t place him with a family we decided to keep him as our own forever dog. He was an interesting fellow full of “quirks” and “peculiarities” (sadly he’s no longer with us but he had 16 wonderful years), but I loved him more than I could possibly even express and I’m sure most of you pet owners feel the same way.

So when it came to introducing baby to pup, I was extremely nervous. I did online research, spoke to the wonderful woman who dog-sat him when we traveled and had much more experience than I did and also asked our pediatrician. I was generally given the same advice, bring a baby blanket home from the hospital to get your pet used to the scent of your new baby to hopefully ease the transition to having a new family member.

So we did all of those things and hoped for the best. My husband came home for a few hours while I was still in the hospital to walk our dog and bring some baby blankets which was a huge relief and gave me hope that it would work out well but… it didn’t. In fact, it was truly terrible.

Now here’s a little more backstory. I had an easy pregnancy, an easy delivery (albeit several weeks earlier than we expected), so really I had very little to complain about pregnancy-wise. But I was always worried about the pet introduction. Not because I had a terrible dog (he was never agressive) but because he was old by that point and a bit stubborn and stuck in his own quirky routine. A newborn would change everything. How could it not?

We arrived home from the hospital and first let Digby smell our daughter’s tiny foot while we held her at a safe distance in her carseat. He waged his tail, ran in circles and all seemed ok. Big sigh of relief! So we took our baby out of the carseat and it quickly went downhill. I don’t even know how to describe it other than to say he started following us as we held our baby as if he was stalking some small, delicious animal that he’d been waiting his whole dog life to eat. He was only 12 pounds and safely distanced, but I had a total feeling of dread. It was not going how I had hoped.

My husband could sense my total panic and suggested we take them on a walk. So within five minutes of coming home we loaded our newborn into her stroller and pushed her down the street with our pup following. I started to calm down but as soon as we got home I could just tell our dog was freaking out and we couldn’t safely have him around without worrying what would happen.

I promptly had a total, loud-cry meltdown. Now jumping back to what I said about having an easy pregnancy - this was really the worst outcome I could have hoped for. We were all healthy and at home but my dog was not happy and we were exhausted and had no idea what to do. I needed a backup plan.

So we called our amazing dog-sitter to see what she suggested. As soon as she heard me crying she said, “Say no more, we’re coming to pick him up.” She drove 45-minutes to my house and picked up Digby, no questions asked. She told us to take all the time we needed and not worry about paying for anything. Typing this now makes me tear up thinking about the extreme kindness she showed us and how we were able to instantly relax and focus on adjusting to our new baby before we brought our dog back home.

But don’t fret! This story has a happy ending. Digby came home after a few weeks and slowly adjusted to life with a baby. We got a baby gate and kept him in the kitchen when our little one was on the move and while life for our dog was different and he didn’t have the same freedom he had pre-baby, he was able to live out his last few years as part of our pack, happily integrated and even learned to love our little one.

So here’s my big tip for everyone - have a backup plan. Pretty much for anything and everything that you’re worried about because it’s impossible to know how situations are going to play out. We never in a million years expected that the introduction between pup and baby would go south so quickly and become the biggest stressor on that first day home from the hospital, but thankfully we were able to get help and all ended well.

So Happy Fourth Trimester to all you parents out there! I promise every day is easier than the last. The learning curve is steep but the cliche is true, there is no stronger love than the one you have for your child.

- Callie AKA “MiLOWE Mom”