I breed Norwegian Forest Cats so I had cats (and big cats at that!) all through my pregnancy and currently have a litter of kittens as well and Findlay spends time with the cats and kittens every day and we have never had a single problem.

I do leave Findlay unattended with my cats at times as they have been supervised with him loads and love him to bits and basically treat him like a kitten. One of my females loves him so much she spent her whole early labour stage snuggled up with him.

We have never used a cat net and nor have we trained the cats to stay out of the cot. The cats will get in his cot if he is not in it but if he is in it they will just sit on the chair next to the cot and watch him and won't attempt to get in it.

I know that not everyone will have cats as tolerant and chilled as mine but please don't think that cats and babies automatically don't mix.

Findlay having a nap in the kitten pen (he had a cloth night nappy on he's not actually part weeble!) with 3 x four week old kittens the other day, as you can see they are clearly trying to 'steal his breath' and all the other horrendous things cats apparently do to babies

I'm sure our 3 cats will adapt just fine to a baby. Probably run and hide the first time he cries and then decide he's the best thing ever once he starts dropping food on the floor for them -lol!
As someone who lives in the US and happens to know a very large number of vets and vets to be (Local college vet school), I'd like to mention that nobody I know would ever, ever consider declawing a cat and we find it to be just as cruel as the rest of the world. It may not be illegal yet, but it's not as common as you might suppose. The only cats I ever see that are declawed are the ones at the SPCA, so clearly the previous 'owners' weren't very good ones.

I have a cat who sometimes nips or scratches but only when I have either been brushing her for too long (she only likes it for 15 or so minutes) or if DH teases her.

I don't see what issues you could have? Don't leave your cat unsupervised with the baby. Simple as.

As someone else said, IMO the biggest difficulties you will have with pets is once the baby gets a bit older and wants to play!

We have two cats and to be honest even though they loved to sleep in my youngests room when she was smaller (2yr old now) they hated it when she was in there. Our female cat was interested in her for all of about 2 minutes but from the look on the cat's face she smelt funny and probably in the begining once a month she would wander over sniff her again and still decide she was to be ranked up there along with the smell of oranges (bleh bleh)

Our male on the other hand couldn't have given a rats backside, he was in no way shape or form interested in her, still isnt really unless he thinks it should be his dinner time and we have told him to go away. On occasion he has led her to the food bowl and just mewed at her to feed him.

Can't see them being any different this time around either

Lottie that is the most gorgeous pic!

Isn't it just.

+1!

We have a small black house-cat called Ruud who has been our 'baby' for 4years - he's had the run of the house and more attention than he's prefer but we aren't particularly worried about him hurting the baby.
We've had warnings (from people who don't like and have never had a cat) about babies being smothered etc. but Ruud has never showed signs of turning nasty when my nephews have visited and basically just ran away because they smell odd and make lots of noise.
We will get a cat net and have stopped Ruud going in the spare room because it is now the nursery but he won't be left alone with the baby so I can't see there will be an issue.
Ruud's also been very affectionate with me since I got pregnant - must be the mummy-hormones!

My cat likes to lie on my tummy and sleep.... this is something she hasn't done since I was pregnant last time

I have 4 cats and a 15mth old and to be honest none of them have ever took any notice of him,the female has aways been petrified of him and the males just ignored him,mind you they were made to sleep downstairs from when i was pregnant just incase and were never left alone with him when he was tiny,now hes mobile they tend to stay out of his way which i totaly understand,he has been swiped when he pulls them but he has to learn,lewis loves the cats to bits its just a shame the feelings arent mutral lol