Obviously I was feeling a little homesick for my blog, so I'm posting about the one notable event that's happened in the past week. Sadly this IS the most exciting thing we've done. After much debate, we finally decided on a new car seat for Ellie. The poor girl has exceeded the weight limit for her infant car seat (surprised? I didn't think so.) and has been way uncomfortable in it for months, so we crossed over to a convertible car seat. The debate came in deciding whether to get a nice one that will last us a good, long time or to get a cheaper one and then buy a duplicate of the one Sadie has (a Graco Nautilius, which we LOVE) when she turns a year old.
The problem is, the second option would require turning her front-facing at a year old.
Which apparently is a terrible, awful, dangerous thing now, according to the AAP.
Unfortunately, Ellie really doesn't like to be rear-facing. Really, really doesn't like it. I know it's supposedly safer, but I don't know how I feel about keeping her rear-facing past a year, let alone until she's 40 POUNDS. (That's the weight limit on the new car seat. I can't even fathom putting a kid bigger than Sadie in a rear-facing car seat. Crazy!)
Anyways, we finally decided to invest in a nice convertible seat. I honestly don't know when we'll turn her around, but this buys us some time to decide. It's also an investment - the next baby can use it (someday far in the future) and since we have some VERY long drives planned for this summer, we'll rest assured that she's at least comfortable.
WAAAAY comfortable. :) This thing's like a La-Z-Boy, reincarnated as a car seat.
Also, here's a few extra pictures of the girls. That's what you're all looking for here anyways, right? ;)
Your girls are absolutely beautiful. And this car seat thing has been the bane of my existence. We. Ultimately decided to go with the Graco one Sadie has. Our current car seats are packed like sausages and we went to babies r us to test install to bigger convertible seats and it was a joke! Plus, like Ellie, they protest being rear facing with ridiculously loud screams. I'm still torn though and we haven't made the final decision yet, but its seriously stressing me out. Maybe we'll just walk everywhere for the next year. :)
ReplyDeleteAs a mom, I disagree with the new car seat suggestions. It can't be safer for a kid to have their knees up by their ears because their feet are scrunched against the back of the seat. My almost 2 year old would still be back facing for a while longer because she is no where near 40 lbs. This would not do at all.
ReplyDeleteShe also has a convertible which we call the Lazy Boy. It is so big and padded, I'm sure she is lots safer than in a smaller car seat.
I am expecting the next recommendations to suggest all children wear helmets when riding in a car until they are 21.
I'm not quite sure how I feel about that recommendation, although here you can turn them around from 8kg (which is about 17.5 lbs) instead of the whole year old thing in the US. However, I think I'll keep her rear facing until she is too tall for her seat. I'm thinkin that won't be too long as she is growing like a weed! Ellie's seat sure does look comfortable though! And adorable pictures of the girls too. :)
ReplyDeleteI just went to the doc today for Emma's one year wcc. I asked her about it as well. She says she really doesn't agree with it at all and feels the same about the safety with the knees in the face, but she feels she needs to follow the recommendation. She told me to keep Emma turned around until she got too upset about it or until it was uncomfortable. She told me the recommendation was two years old, not the 40 lb thing. If that was the case, Ky would still be turned rear facing and he is three!!
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is that even though McKenzie is 17 months old, we haven't even had the choice to turn her around yet under the old rules. She still hasn't reach 20 pounds. My poor midget will be rear facing forever. But I have to agree that getting a new carseat is actually exciting. I was all smiles when we got Cambrie her newest one :)
ReplyDeleteYay for a blog post...I was going through withdrawals... j/k. As for the car seat decision, maybe I'm just a bad mom, but we didn't even blink an eye at turning Zachy around to forward facing. He's so tall, and his little legs were all scrunched up.
ReplyDelete