38 weeks and our first parenting snafu
Click here to read what is happening in the pregnancy at 38 weeks. And to read about our great car seat adventure, read below.
Bryan and I decided to install the car seat last weekend. I didn't really have any doubts we could pull it off, I mean thousands of flakey mom's do this every day (not saying all mom's are flakey...obviously). So I'm reading the little instructions that come with the car seat, comparing them with my car's manual. Ok we got, we got it. Ok we don't got it. We put the base in, first of all we had it in the center, (rear facing of course!) and we used my car's seatbelt. The thing would not tighten nearly enough. Oh wait, the LATCH system, that's riiiight. OK undo the seatbelt, find the little corresponding LATCH symbols on my car and hook it in. Tighten up the belt. Hmmmmm, still not tight. Maybe we need to use my car seat belt AND the LATCH thing. Nope, didn't help. Meanwhile the evil lady from the birthing class is playing over and over in my head "If your car seat can move even a hair your KID WILL DIE." This isn't good.
Something just isn't right with this whole LATCH thing, it's like the straps go all the way across the other 2 seats in the back which would totally interfere with anyone else riding back there. I don't remember anyone else's car having this problem. Oh looky, here are two more LATCH hooks closer to the center, this MUST be it. Re-hook everything and it is still too loose. Wait, what about this little lock clip thing in the picture...ours didn't come with one! Oh my gosh, we need one of these!! I'm looking all over the car seat and whaddya know, it's like built in to the infant seat carrier, how convenient. We take it off and are thinking this won't help a bit. Looking at the clip, looking at the car seat instructions, looking at my car manual, shaking the car seat every now and then, watching it easily shake side to side, forward and back. NOT GOOD. That's it, we aren't leaving the house, problem solved. OK, OK, not realistic.
So we concluded the clip thing isn't applicable in our case with the belt we were using, it was for the outside seats. Maybe we should move it to the outside. But no, it clearly says to use the center if possible. But wait, it says the center isn't compliant with most LATCH systems. So why are these LATCH hooks here for the center. Oooooooohhhh, they aren't for the center, they are for the outside. Well now what?
Bryan: Maybe we should put it on the outside seat
Me: Are you insane?? We could easily get hit in the side and bam, baby is dead
Bryan: Well we might be able to actually install the seat then
Me: Great, install the seat knowing the baby is dead. Why even use a car seat at all???
Back to square one, using my car seat belt, seat in the center, forget the LATCH. If only the seat belt would go tighter, this doesn't make any sense. There are only so many ways to install this thing and we've tried them all. It's just impossible, maybe they are meant to sway from side to side. No that can't be right. I'm now convinced that Xterras are not designed for car seat installation. That's it, I give up we have to get someone to do this for us and we'll never take it out again.
We come in, I'm calling the Fire Stations since every where I read says that your local friendly firemen will gladly install your car seat. Well not ours! Great. Now we have plenty of friends that have used many a car seat that could help us but I wanted it done THEN. And at this point I don't trust that anyone's are installed correctly because it's apparently completely 100% impossible to install a car seat. We're looking online, we're racking our brains. I'm trying to find the next car seat installation training class at the Maryland Kids in Safety Seats (KISS) and freaked out because they aren't answering their phone. Maybe because it was a Friday evening!
Finally, Bryan comes across a very helpful site and showing a nice little image of someone's knee in the car seat base as they are pulling up on the seat belt. Well we pulled and pulled on that thing so I didn't see how it would help. Sure enough, Bryan got that thing tight. All about LEVERAGE BABY! No movement side to side or forward and back. THANK GOODNESS WE WILL BE ALLOWED TO BRING OUR KID HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL. I think I'll still be getting it double checked but I like to think that we are semi-competent in this whole baby care thing now.
Bryan and I decided to install the car seat last weekend. I didn't really have any doubts we could pull it off, I mean thousands of flakey mom's do this every day (not saying all mom's are flakey...obviously). So I'm reading the little instructions that come with the car seat, comparing them with my car's manual. Ok we got, we got it. Ok we don't got it. We put the base in, first of all we had it in the center, (rear facing of course!) and we used my car's seatbelt. The thing would not tighten nearly enough. Oh wait, the LATCH system, that's riiiight. OK undo the seatbelt, find the little corresponding LATCH symbols on my car and hook it in. Tighten up the belt. Hmmmmm, still not tight. Maybe we need to use my car seat belt AND the LATCH thing. Nope, didn't help. Meanwhile the evil lady from the birthing class is playing over and over in my head "If your car seat can move even a hair your KID WILL DIE." This isn't good.
Something just isn't right with this whole LATCH thing, it's like the straps go all the way across the other 2 seats in the back which would totally interfere with anyone else riding back there. I don't remember anyone else's car having this problem. Oh looky, here are two more LATCH hooks closer to the center, this MUST be it. Re-hook everything and it is still too loose. Wait, what about this little lock clip thing in the picture...ours didn't come with one! Oh my gosh, we need one of these!! I'm looking all over the car seat and whaddya know, it's like built in to the infant seat carrier, how convenient. We take it off and are thinking this won't help a bit. Looking at the clip, looking at the car seat instructions, looking at my car manual, shaking the car seat every now and then, watching it easily shake side to side, forward and back. NOT GOOD. That's it, we aren't leaving the house, problem solved. OK, OK, not realistic.
So we concluded the clip thing isn't applicable in our case with the belt we were using, it was for the outside seats. Maybe we should move it to the outside. But no, it clearly says to use the center if possible. But wait, it says the center isn't compliant with most LATCH systems. So why are these LATCH hooks here for the center. Oooooooohhhh, they aren't for the center, they are for the outside. Well now what?
Bryan: Maybe we should put it on the outside seat
Me: Are you insane?? We could easily get hit in the side and bam, baby is dead
Bryan: Well we might be able to actually install the seat then
Me: Great, install the seat knowing the baby is dead. Why even use a car seat at all???
Back to square one, using my car seat belt, seat in the center, forget the LATCH. If only the seat belt would go tighter, this doesn't make any sense. There are only so many ways to install this thing and we've tried them all. It's just impossible, maybe they are meant to sway from side to side. No that can't be right. I'm now convinced that Xterras are not designed for car seat installation. That's it, I give up we have to get someone to do this for us and we'll never take it out again.
We come in, I'm calling the Fire Stations since every where I read says that your local friendly firemen will gladly install your car seat. Well not ours! Great. Now we have plenty of friends that have used many a car seat that could help us but I wanted it done THEN. And at this point I don't trust that anyone's are installed correctly because it's apparently completely 100% impossible to install a car seat. We're looking online, we're racking our brains. I'm trying to find the next car seat installation training class at the Maryland Kids in Safety Seats (KISS) and freaked out because they aren't answering their phone. Maybe because it was a Friday evening!
Finally, Bryan comes across a very helpful site and showing a nice little image of someone's knee in the car seat base as they are pulling up on the seat belt. Well we pulled and pulled on that thing so I didn't see how it would help. Sure enough, Bryan got that thing tight. All about LEVERAGE BABY! No movement side to side or forward and back. THANK GOODNESS WE WILL BE ALLOWED TO BRING OUR KID HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL. I think I'll still be getting it double checked but I like to think that we are semi-competent in this whole baby care thing now.
posted by Julian at 5:58 PM
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