Car Seat Woes

Carlise is sooo big (40lbs.) that she has outgrown the 5-point harness on her car seat and most car seats for that matter. I know most parents would just put their child in a belt-positioning high back booster. However, I can't do that with Carlise because she's not even the minimum age (3) for those yet. And I can't see her in the back of the van or trust that she'll sit up the way you have to for those seats, or that she won't unbuckle herself. So I had to find a seat that has a higher weight limit on the harness. The cheapest one is $110. But no one local carries it where I can play with it and see how she fits in it. So I'm getting the next cheapest at $150. Since she's already 40lbs. she needs a new seat like NOW! Because her current harness is only crash tested to hold up to 40lbs. Eeeek! Despite how gloomy it looked at first, we managed to scrape up some money (yet another reminder of why you need an emergency fund) and sell a couple things (toys no longer played with) to fund the seat. Blessings are wonderful!!!!! I go tomorrow to get the seat. It's the Graco Nautilus

Today we went to our appt. with the CPS Tech. He checked the installation of our car seats. 93% of car seats are installed wrong. I always thought ours were installed correctly, but I wondered if I was one of those parents that thought I had done it correctly and it wasn't. But everything checked out!

Informed decisions

I believe in making informed decisions. I LOVE researching things to find out as much as I can. And when it comes to safety, especially my children's, I'm very vigilant as most parents are. However, I've only just heard about extended rear-facing. Everyone knows the law of the land is that an infant must be at least 1 yr of age & 20 lbs. before forward facing in a vehicle. Pediatricians are actually recommending they remain rear-facing for as long as the seat will allow. My cheap $40 seat from Wal-Mart even allows a child to be rear-facing up to 35 lbs. I never really gave this extended theory a try, until I saw this video. Again, I believe you have to be informed before you can make a wise decision. Please watch, and then make yours.