My husband and I started to feel a little guilty because we weren’t spending as much time as before with our two dogs since the baby was born. It’s definitely hard trying to juggle a new baby, household chores, and two high energy dogs. Before baby, we took them on 30 minute walks during the week and hiked on the weekends. Since baby, there walks have been cut down to 10 minutes around the block during the week. The hardest part for the dogs was adjusting the first month after baby. My husband and I could tell the dogs were confused and didn’t understand why our schedules were so off and why we didn’t have any time or energy to play with them. Luckily, we have a doggie door and a large backyard which helped but I know it’s not the same as playing with them.
One of our dogs is around 3 years old and he is very high energy. We haven’t been able to leave him alone with baby because he jumps and is pretty strong. Because of that, we typically spend most of our time upstairs in the nursery so that Baby C can do his tummy time and be on his play mat without having to worry about the dogs jumping on him. I sometimes wish we had two mellow dogs – the dogs that you see in pictures hanging out with infants or napping with them.
Now that Baby C is older and we have established a better routine and have created more time for our pups. I babywear our little boy during the day and have both hands free to walk to dogs. Also, we put in a swing in the backyard so we spend more time there and we can play fetch with the dogs while pushing baby in his swing. We all enjoy being outside and its perfect timing with the warmer weather.
It’s definitely a balancing act just like finding time to spend just me and my husband or hanging out with my non-mommy friends. How do you make time for your furry, fuzzy and four-legged family members?