The nursery work goes far more smoothly in the weeks before the baby arrives, when the room can change slowly and your cat can absorb each adjustment without also coping with a newborn's sounds and smells. The aim is not to exile her from family life; it is to make one room reliably cat-free for sleep, to remove anything in that room that could fall, dangle or be chewed into the cot, and to give her somewhere genuinely good to go instead. Done early and gradually, the new arrangement reads to her as a household reshuffle rather than a punishment attached to the baby.
Make the Nursery Off-Limits Beforehand
Start with the barrier, because every other rule depends on it working without willpower. Fit a cat-excluding door that closes properly, or a screen door that lets air and sound through but not the cat, and check that she cannot slip through when it is opened for night feeds or push it ajar from a running start. Begin using the barrier before the baby arrives, during the day and overnight, so closed becomes the room's normal state rather than a sudden ban. At the same time, move the cat's own furniture out gradually in advance: shift her tree, bed or scratching post a short distance every few days until it sits in its new place outside the nursery, with the same blankets carrying her scent with it. A perch removed in one afternoon can anchor resentment to the room; the same perch migrated over a fortnight is barely news.
Remove Hazards That Could Reach the Cot
Now audit the room from a climbing cat's eye level. Remove anything climbable or chewable that could fall into the cot: shelves she could launch from, stacked boxes, freestanding frames and mobiles or cords hanging within reach of the mattress all come out or move beyond any possible drop zone. Position the cot itself away from curtains, blind cords and shelving, so a cat who does slip in has no high route above the sleeping space and nothing to bat down into it. Check soft furnishings for dangling ties and loose items she could drag, and keep nappy creams, wipes and small supplies in drawers or lidded boxes rather than open baskets. Keep the cot netted or the door closed whenever the baby sleeps, with no exceptions for a cat who seems uninterested, because interest is exactly what cannot be predicted. The plain household rule, repeated to every visitor, is that the cat is never left alone with the baby.
Give Her a Better Place Outside
Exclusion only stays kind if the territory outside the door is worth having. Provide an equally good perch outside the nursery, ideally better than the one she lost: a high spot with a view, a warm bed in a patch of sun and a scratching surface, placed where the household still gathers so she remains part of the evening. Keep her feeding, play and grooming routines running on their usual schedule through the change, and add short play sessions in the new spot so it collects good associations before the baby comes home. Expect some door-scratching and protest in the early days, and answer it with play and attention at her new perch rather than by opening the door, which would teach that persistence reopens rooms. When relatives help after the birth, the routine holds because the nursery rules sit inside Family Sharing on KinsLe, visible to each person feeding her or settling her for the night.