Monday, September 13, 2010

Big Girl Car Seat!

It was finally time.  As much as I loved Hannah’s bucket car seat it was time to move her to a big girl car seat.  The bucket we had borrowed was good up to 35 lbs and 32”.  She still had a lot of room weight wise but had suddenly grown taller so it was time to trade it in and install her new seat that had been a gift from some great bloggy friends just before I received Hannah’s referral. 
I had put off the change for as long as possible for a couple of reasons.  My baby girl still loved to sleep in the car and the bucket allowed me an easy transition into the house when we got home where she could continue her nap.  Also, it was an emotional move for mommy to move her out of the baby seat and into the bigger one.  All too quickly she has left babyhood behind and is now all toddler.  The car seat was one of these transitional points.
I have chosen to put Hannah’s full sized seat in rear facing hopefully until she’s at least 2 years old.  I read on both the Canadian and American Paediatric websites that they recommend babies be rear facing up to 2 years of age when possible.  Hannah doesn’t mind and since we spend a lot of time in the car I want her to be as safe as possible.  
As you can see from these pics, the change was much harder on mommy than it was on Hannah!!Imported Photos 00018
My little monkey teasing Mommy about taking her piggy out.  Imported Photos 00014

10 comments:

  1. My nephew broke his neck in 6 places in a crash forward facing at 16 months. He is mostly recovered 4 years later but not entirely. Rear facing is so much safer. Congrats on your beautiful daughter!

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  2. A big move, indeed! She looks quite happy in her new big girl seat!!
    We are planning to keep the twins rear facing in their big seats for as long as we can as well. Anything that keeps them safer is important to us.

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  3. Wow! I just read Anonymous' comment and am more sure than ever about keeping the babies rear facing!

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  4. It is hard but they sure are comfy in their big seats!

    Keep smilin!

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  5. Well, she just looks like Miss Independent now! Love the fashion jeans, too.

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  6. Oh, what a BIG step! I think we finally turned the Tongginator around at about 20/21 months of age. She just cried and cried because she couldn't see anything. I agree that leaving them rear facing as long as possible is the best!

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  7. She's such a big girl! I had to transition my baby girl to the B.ritax around 5 months bc she hated the bucket with passion. And we just turned her seat around at 12 months bc she would scream her head off rear facing... But after reading Anon's comment, I'm tempted to turn her back around!

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  8. Thank you for sharing your story with us Anonymous. I'm sorry you had to go through this.

    It helps to reinforce what I'm doing though even though she may get to the stage where she doesn't want to be backwards or it might be easier when the big winter coat enters the scene. Still have to do what's safest for her.

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  9. Catherine, what we did with my baby girl (who is not so much of a baby anymore at 5 years old) is I kept a blanket in the car... I never used her coat unless we were going to be outside for a period of time... I would just put her in the carseat, cover her with the blanket (if needed) and then use the blanket when transporting to and from the car... It may have been easier on me because we do have a garage so I have never really dealt with cold/sleeping/raining etc. when getting home...

    AND you have such a safe seat! I LOVED our Britax and only just recently took my daughter out. One of her birthday presents was a booster seat! She was in her carseat much longer than most of her "friends" lol!

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  10. That is a big step! We love our rear facing plan and so does Jenny.

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