It feels like every other day I see a post here about how pregnancy/having kids made someone hate their animals, or resent their animals, and they want to rehome them now and they're on the bottom of their list, etc.
I don't deny that post partum depression and anxiety and just the hormones in general will do wild things to your brain. I also understand that having a child is a huge shift in priorities and it's natural for things to...well... Change!
But I wanted to start up a thread about the opposite phenomenon - because hating your pet is NOT an automatic result of pregnancy and childbirth. Plenty of people don't experience pet rejection and it's good to remember that side of it too!
We got our dog a year before having our first kid. She is a wonderful pup that we got from a shelter at 4 months old. She's an incredibly good girl, and even though she has her quirks (trying to pick up trash on walks, whining pointedly when she doesn't get enough attention) she is an angel when it comes to noise (doesn't bark much at all.)
When we brought our daughter home, she immediately tried to fight us for custody, and has been the biggest nanny dog since. She wants to lick every inch of that baby, and comes running when she cries.
She still sleeps in our bed with us, sometimes with our daughter there too. Is it an absolute nightmare to Tetris my body around a 2 month old AND an 18kg dog that wants to literally have her entire face in my butt? Yes. Yes it is. Is it also a pain in the ass to be woken up at 6am after breastfeeding at 4am, and taking her on a 40 minute walk? Yes. But it's completely worth it, and she deserves her time too. (I just wish she'd stop flapping her giant fruitbat ears so loudly it sounds like a helicopter is taking off.... Girl please, the baby is sleeping........)
But I love her, and I haven't felt any resentment whatsoever. I do get annoyed by some things, but that's natural - I'm tired, and I need to divide up time differently now. We're all still adjusting, but I firmly believe it will only ever get better from here.