Jealousy?

Max came into our lives just about 3 years ago. Sadly, I don't have the day written down, but this picture was April 19th, and I think he had been with us for about a week. I'll sometime go into the story about how he came to be ours, but that is not for today.

He has been our child the last 3 years. When we found out we were pregnant, we told Max that he was going to have a sibling, and when we found out we were having a girl, we would always talk to him about his baby sister coming. I think my family thinks we are a little bit crazy - we never had dogs that were like family members growing up. Sure, we had pets that we loved, but I never remember thinking any of our pets like family.

Many people asked us how we thought Max would act when Abbi came. Everyone knew that Max is seriously like our child, and wondered how he would react when he no longer got all of the attention.

I never worried. I knew that he is a gentle dog, and even though he barks a lot when someone that he doesn't know really well comes over, I knew that he would love - and probably protect - our little girl.

And really, I've been right. He's gentle with her and loves to give her kisses. He's quite curious, but he doesn't like it when she cries.
And I even came out the other day to see my two children taking naps together - Max there on the floor, watching over Abbi.

But for the last week or so, I sense that Max is starting to get jealous. It started with him trying to jump on my lap when I'm rocking or feeding Abbi. Usually, I have the Boppy pillow, so there is no room for him, but sometimes he nestles his way into my lap so I am there - holding them both. If I try to make him get off, he almost looks at me as if he is saying "mommy, I want you to hold me this time!" I make sure and give him lots of attention when I'm not attending to Abbi, but it's not the same as it used to be.

Last night, I was in bed, Max cuddled into the covers next to me. Abbi started to cry, so I reached over to pick her up from the pack and play to put her back to sleep. I sat there in bed, with Abbi in my arms, and Max comes out of the covers to see what is going on. When he sees that I have Abbi, he tries to push his way into my arms, wanting to push Abbi out. He started crying when I couldn't hold him, but after a minute or so he just nestled into me, almost like he was just trying to get as close as possible. I felt badly, and even though I love him, it's not like I could ignore Abbi to take care of him. Once she fell back asleep, I made sure to give him lots of loves and pets, but it still made me feel bad.

I hope that this is just a phase and that he will go back to acting normally!