Cats and babies

As many of you know, I'm currently residing with two curious kittycat brothers, Dash and Tybalt.

I'm also expecting a human baby.

I...am not a cat person. I love these cats, but I don't know much about their care, behavior, etc.

My mom had a cat when I was born, and ended up putting it down because it peed in my crib and tried to lie on my face.

The cats don't really go in my bedroom ever unless I invite them in and closely supervise them, so I'm not really worried about that, but what about when the baby's around them. They won't ever be unsupervised together, but are the cats going to try to like....touch the baby, or play with her, or eat her?

In my experience.. cats that are already nonchalant about you and socialized to having the baby around will likely show a polite disinterest. most of the people I work for have children/babies and cats and the usual consensus from the cats is a respectful "eh."

We teach the "baby blanket rule" early in my house because of the younger family members. (As in, baby is on the floor on a blanket, you get lots of treats for staying OFF said blanket) it teaches to give the baby space as well as the baby is positive.

Cats that pee on babies etc.. are usually cats where owners SHOO or GO AWAY KITTY anytime the kitty comes within a 20 ft radius of the baby. So of course the cat grows to resent it.
I had 3 cats growing up and as a baby. polite disinterest at best lol my mom said they sniffed my car seat when I came home and sometimes wandered into my nursery but otherwise.. nada.

Buy some kitty treats. Reward the cats for just hanging around when baby is around, socialize them to baby crying noises etc...

Babies are much more interesting when they are toddlers when they are pulling you out from under the bed by your tail
LOL I was an awful child. Poor cats.

I agree with everything Fran said above. I just want to add that ss with ANY animal, if you are not able to supervise, keep the cats AWAY from the baby. If you are supervising them, you can easily interrupt any unwanted behavior and then you don't have to kill the cat for behaving in a predictable manner. Also, when the baby gets to tail pulling age, you'll want to start clipping the cats' nails every week so that they aren't sharp enough to inflict any injury if you aren't able to interrupt the tail pulling fast enough.

My cats are incredibly social and easygoing with people. They mostly ignore Justin's presence and go about their business as usual. Now that Justin is mobile, they just nonchalantly move out of the way when he reaches to touch them.

Honestly, you just take the same precautions with cats/babies as you do with dogs/babies. Give them a gradual introduction, don't leave them together unsupervised, don't allow the baby to harass the cat and vice versa, etc. Just like with dogs, cats are all individual in terms of how comfortable they are with change and how they react to it.

My cats were, to my horror, declawed so I'm not concerned about scratching. I'm not really that concerned about them at all, just wondering what they're likely to do.

Tybalt will probably show cautious interest until the baby moves or makes a noise and then he'll run away.

Dash will probably be all over the kid, LIKE HEY WHAT IS THIS A NEW FRIEND HI which is what he tries to do to everything from house guests to snarling dogs.

Well that's rather horrible

Our cats have largely ignored Clive. Del would lay next to him on my lap if I was holding him when he was tiny, but lost interest once he was mobile and prone to grabbiness. Abner adores him and they're great friends (even through the grabby stage)

Our cat threw up on Samuel's stomach, but other than that loves the kids and is awesome. I don't think she was being mean or anything when she did it, she's just kind of brain damaged or something. I did kick her outside for a while after that just because she's really unhygienic. She's currently outside for inappropriate bathroom habits.

Fran pretty much touched on everything. Unless the cat is a mean psycho they won't go out of their way to attack a kid/baby. If they get cornered and a kid is abusing/scaring them they might defend themselves. Most will just run away and hide under something though.

If the cats are going to lay around on things that the baby will lay on at some point make sure their wormer/flea stuff stays up to date. I was always really paranoid about that. They sit there and lick their butts... I can't help but think they're shedding a bunch of worm eggs in the process. bleaaahhh.

I was two when we got our first cat and he was around through three other babies being born. Never once did mom have a problem with him. And I am incredibly thankful I grew up with him, because he was the best cat ever.

Granted, we did have another kitten that she rehomed because he was WAY to rough with me as a toddler. Like, drawing blood every time I interacted with him. That was a no go for her.

Totally depends on the cat. My cat is extremely social but never got close to the kids... still doesn't. She lets them pet her occasionally but you can tell she's nervous and she will just leave when it's too much.

The cat wasn't JUST put down because I was born, I should have clarified. She was also pretty much feral (only liked my mom, wouldn't go near anyone else), was old-ish (Although I think only like 13 or 14, so not terribly old for a cat) and was apparently MISERABLE after I was born...wouldn't come out for days at a time and then when she did, used my crib as a litterbox and went after me. She wasn't really a candidate for rehoming because she hated people/change so much.

Our cats now are considerably more friendly and normal and stable. They're also strictly indoor cats, I'm not sure if they're regularly dewormed or given flea meds. They could pick up fleas from the dogs I guess but so far so good...is it likely for indoor cats to get worms?