Oh man, I can't imagine having had Samantha and a brand new baby at the same time! Does she realize everything a new puppy entails - fixing your schedule around theirs, house-training it, behavior-training it, cleaning up after it, etc.? On top of adjusting to life as a new mom? NO WAY!! Horrible, horrible timing. She should get the puppy first so that she has time to bond with it before a baby comes along, otherwise the dog is never going to get the attention it deserves. However, it sounds like she's pretty close to giving birth, so in that case, I would wait quite awhile before getting a dog. Like, four or five years.

Wow. My fiance and I knew that we wanted a dog in our lives, but we had been planning on waiting until we started a family first. Then Samantha dropped into our lives and I realize now that it was for the best - by the time we have kids, she'll be at least four... so not only will she have had plenty of time to herself with Mommy and Daddy, but she also will be out of that insane puppy stage where they're 10x more effort than a regular dog.