Babies and pets

when xanthe was born we had a german shepard who had been our baby up till then. we just made sure that he was able to sniff her when we brought her home, and then we made sure that he had supervised access to her if he was interested in the noises/smells she made. he never had more than a little interest in her, but would sleep out side her door when she was in her room. If she moaned or wheezed he would always look at her funny, as if saying "what does that mean?"
Sadly we had to get him put down when x was about 10 months old.
other people will be anxious, but you know your dogs boundaries, you can build up slowly the amount of time your dog spends around your baby. I think you already have a very responsible attitude of "no matter how well you think you know your animal always assume they will behave unpredictably" - we tried to do the same with our large dog, and i think it was successful with getting him comfortable with the baby.
You will have to deal with the issues of crawling/moving baby later on, which is where the problems of top dog and pack mentality often come in. there is a lot of information you can use on the internet, from what i remember the main things are never let the child around the animals food - that is a classic place for top dog aggression to act out, and when you chastise your child, the dog will see it as the pack is putting a lower member of the pack in its place, so will likely to do the same. As far as he is concerned baby is lowest in the low! Just try to avoid those situations as much as possible ( cant really say for sure, as the dog was gone by the time we came to that.)
Sorry for the novel

I have a cat who is likely to get jealous of baby when she comes along. Someone suggested I should use an outfit that baby has worn and let the cat sniff it to get used to the smell. Other than that, I'll probably just have one stroppy cat on my hands!

A friend of mine has a family dog that had always been great around their baby, but one incident where she fed the baby close to the dog resulted in the baby being bitten by the dog! She didn't put the dog down, but now she never has the child + dog + food combination as it brings out the dogs competative nature..

And of course the situation!

We have had no problem with our dog, a couple of days before I came home from th maternity unit my hubby had brought home an outfit piper had been wearing (the nurse said it might help) and let sherry sniff it and then when I came home put piper on the floor to investigate. Now when ever the dog comes inside if she cant see piper anywhere she will look for her, even goes and sniffs her cot to see if shes in there

I don't think we'll have an issue with our 3 cats...they make themselves pretty scarce around kids anyway!

Thing will be giving them attention as well and not leaving them alone with bubs.

Jacks Mum..your Goldie (whitie) is georgeous. You just know with them they will be no trouble at all aye!! Beautifully natured dogs and love attention and cuddles and just being around you all day long!!
Paige jumps on Charlie and does alsorts to him...He is such a softie. Would never hurt a flea!

we have a newfoundland and he has been fine both times we have babies home. We just let him smell them and made sure he kept a reasonable distance. Max doesnt know his own strength though and it was the times when he would turn around and his tail would hit the baby or he would get up and accidentally hit him. Unfortunately we might have to find Max a new home now cos he is getting really old and Kobe is at the age where he just wants to jump on poor old max and pushes and pulls at him all the time and so far max just lets him do anything but Im worried that one day he will snap at Kobe or even Addy. I just dont think I want to take tht risk