For us the baby waker was a big brown lab who didn't bark, but seemed determined to make every noise possible (shaking his collar, yawning, bumping into the bed as he shifted positions in the night, scratching and even talking in his sleep) He woke the baby up so much the first couple of months, I thought his days as an inside dog were numbered. But the baby saved him. She got used to all the noise and even sleeps through barking now. I know this isn't much help, but if kids can get used to sleeping through trains passing by, the is hope for almost any pet. If things hadn't improved, I probably would have gone back to having my dog sleep in his cage. Would that be an option for your cats?

Our baby isn't out yet (any day now!), but we have two cats and they've been pretty active lately during our sleeping hours. The boy cat has taken to caterwauling very loudly in front of every closed door in the house (that's six doors: closets, pantry, front door, etc.). Also he claws at the bottoms of the cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom until he gets one open so he can step inside. This results in a repetitive banging noise until he gets the cupboard open. Then too he sometimes likes to turbo around the house along the long hallway and up and down the living room furniture.

We live in a 650 sq ft apartment so we can hear all of this. I'm able to go back to sleep after the initial waking but my husband can't and I'm sure when the baby is out she'll be awakened by this.

We've done a few things to curb this behavior. I switched up their daily feeding time from the mornings to the evenings. Just before we go to bed, I feed them. Even though they have food in their bowls all day, they look forward to the fresh kibble and they stop stalking us in the mornings when we want to sleep in.

Around 5:30pm or so, I take away all their pet beds and fold up any blankets they might be curled up in and basically leave them no places to cozy up to for a nap. They kind of just sit there blinking for about an hour or so, but it's worked. They don't get to sleep like they used to between 5:30pm and our bedtime (usually 10:30pm~11pm).

Less frequently (every other night or so), we'll give them a new toy (plastic ring from the milk jug, empty toilet paper roll, crinkled up gift wrap paper, anything new and different to catch their interest) to play with about an hour before we go to bed. Sometimes it will be the laser light that they get to chase for about 15 minutes. They are totally stimulated and by the time we have finished getting ready for bed, climbed into bed, lights off and ready for sleep, they have settled down (back in their beds and blankets which I've returned to their respective spots) and are ready to settle down for another few hours of sleep.

This routine has been working for us for the past week or so. Hopefully it will continue to keep them quiet while we sleep.

Good luck with your cats! Hope this and any other suggestions from the readers help.

Jamjaree - I like the idea of not letting them sleep in the hours before bed. They tend to sleep a huge part of the day anyway, but I'll try adding more play and activity into that portion of the day - thanks for the idea and good luck!

Carrie

Ugh! We suffer from this, too, however we don't have any children yet. We worry about what will happen when we do, since we ourselves are awakened by our cats on a nightly basis.

Since I cannot sleep with cats jumping on and off the bed at night, pouncing on my feet every time I move, we have chosen to close our bedroom door at night, and this has become the cats' sole purpose in life- to get through our closed door.

Like some others have mentioned, we've eliminated the morning feeding, but this still doesn't seem to do the trick. I wish I had some advice to offer, but really all I can do is sympathize with all of you.

You might try plugging in a diffuser of Feliway at night. Feliway is made of synthetic pheromones and calms cats. I've used it on my cats and my parents' cats to help them get along, when traveling, etc. It's expensive but I found it worked wonders and was worth every penny.

Jamjaree, thanks for the excellent suggestions.

Cats hate snagging their claws on mesh. That's probably what stopped your friends' cats at the door.

jamjaree -- You've sleep trained your cats?! Amazing!

Carrie, I hope you find a solution soon. Have you tried putting some orange or lemon slices in your water spritzer? Most cats hate the smell of citrus, so maybe this will work for you. Even my cat, who is the anti-cat (she loves sticky tape, will scratch anything with mesh fabric, and plays fetch), hates the smell of citrus.

I've got 2 cats too, but my babies sleep in their own room. As the pets were anxious to interact with my first son, I've bought a door with an acrilyc window to keep it shut without any harm to the baby. I did the same thing with my girl's bedroom. Once in a while I leave the doors open through the night.

Our cat meows loudly and persistently outside our sons bedroom door. This doesn't actually wake him up, but it wakes us up. This happens most nights, throughout the night. We have locked him up in the basement in the past, but I feel guilty doing this. He doesn't need food, just attention. Now that our son is finally sleeping through the night, we have Gomez the cat to deal with! Ahhh!

The most annoying things are when we're putting our daughter to sleep is the same time my cat used to cuddle and talk/meow loudly with me. Also in the morning cat likes to wake me up for food.

our dog is so excited to wake the toddler up in the morning (but he knows he shouldn't bark) so he does the collar-shaking-grunting-etc noises, too. and anytime the god-forsaken UPS truck drives by and stops at the corner with it's squeaky brakes (or the worst- rings our doorbell!) our dog forgets that he's not supposed to bark and LOSES HIS MIND!

then we've got the cat. she swats at all the door stops to get our attention (DOOOONNNNNGGGG!) and swats things off the counter (which she will then swat under the kitchen stove or the dog will chew it instead) and does the early morning steeplechase through the hallway to get us up. whatever couch we're on, the cat doesn't want us there and does all of the above to tell us that. even though there are OTHER couches that she can have all to herself!

i (sigh) love these pets and consider them part of our family, but with a toddler and a newborn there are so many days when i daydream of just opening up the front door and letting them free!

I don't have a solution, but I've found our cats generally stay quiet until they hear one of us stirring - if I wake up early and get up to run to the bathroom, it's all over but the shouting.

A cute story though - one morning when our daughter was 2 1/2, one of the cats went into her room. I woke to the sound of my daughter yelling "No Boppers*, no DO that. You wake up me!" My husband and I continue to say "You wake up me!" to this day.

*Yes, that's the cat's name. No, it wasn't my idea.

Yes, this is an issue. We have two cats and they start whining around 6am to be fed. We just ignore them until about 7am, but recently they have discovered that if they wake up our
2 1/2 year old, we will have to get out of bed and consequently, feed them. Not sure what to do about this yet.

Sigh. The dog, our first 'baby'. Now she sleeps closed in the laundry room because she licks her paws and scratches her ears all night and it wakes us all up - not a big deal before but now...our toddler was a five-times-a-night waker until recently. Being woken up for any other reason, by anything else, infuriated us incredibly.

Our dog doesn't get optimum attention anymore, there isn't anything we can do about it but it is sad. We like it when she's happy, but the particular things that transport her are the same ones we can't do with a toddler so leash walks is all she gets - and the laundry room. Again, sigh...

@MusicMama, I was in the same boat (except for the toddler, just cats for me) with my eldest cat. She meows and makes tons of noise at 6am to be fed. My solution was to stop feeding first thing when I got up. She now wakes me at 6:30 on weekends, because that's when I feed her.

Try feeding at noon instead of in the morning if you can or switch to evening feeding. It might work.

I'm laughing.out.loud. reading this... why? because we suffer the same problems. Silly me, I thought we were the only family with such a neurotic cat!

Our 'boy cat' likes to MRRROOOOOOOWW!! and carry on at nap time and bed time, when I'm trying to get our 13-month-old to sleep. He starts up again when we all crawl into bed later in the evening, and then when my husband leaves for work if I'm still in bed.

While our little guy is capable of sleeping through the passing trains, the barking dog next door, and just about any other 'regular' noise, he starts to stir just as soon as the cat gets going.

The best part?

We live in a studio.

Sigh.

Previous to my son's birth (now 19 months) I worked at a vet clinic and had taken in way too many cats. When my son reached about 7 months old I bit the bullet and started finding homes for most of them. It was difficult and I felt very guilty, but very relieved. We've gone from 6 housecats to only one full-time housecat and one that is mostly outdoors now, but comes in when it's really cold. I've also started shutting the cat and our very yappy chihuahua in the kitchen/dining room at night, and that has eliminated the cat and dog races up and down the hall beside the nursery and the cat mrowing at our bedroom door. Now my main issue is stalking tracking info online when I'm expecting a package to be delivered. Because of course it's going to be delivered during the baby's naptime and of course the dog is going to go nuts at the first sound of a delivery truck!!

Our cat is nuts. So much so, she sleeps outside at night (we're in a warm part of the country). She also has an automatic feeder outside and the time she gets fed never changes. We hoped that that would help. It didn't. She goes outside of the house next to our 20 month olds room and cries and cries and cries and of course, wakes up the baby. Hubby has threatened a new home for the cat... but the baby loves her (she comes in during the day) and honestly, the cat is very tollerent of toddler abuse.

The dogs sleep inside at night to keep them from barking... and they scratch and move and jangle tags.... so we put the baby gate up in the hallway to keep them away from the bedrooms. This has worked pretty well, and is the only use we've ever had for the gate.

I really wish that we could find a cure for the cat. She's only 12 and will most likely be our last cat ever.

Winivy - thanks for the citrus tip. I didn't know that and will give it a try.

To everyone else, thanks for sharing your stories and suggestions!