Car seats

It's 5:36 a.m. and I've been awake for about two hours. It's times like this when I start thinking about things like all the glowing reviews of this pregnancy pillow, which claim that it actually makes a full night of sweet, comfortable, nearly uninterrupted sleep possible during the last part of pregnancy.

I've been researching baby products during what little time I've spent at the computer lately. I suddenly hit the point of panic when I realized that the baby could be here very soon and we don't have a car seat yet. Anything else can be purchased later or improvised, but since they won't let you take the baby home without a car seat not having one could be a problem. At the very least, I wanted to have one picked out so that DH could run out and buy it while the baby and I were in the hospital if necessary.

So I researched. I asked questions on message boards, read reviews, checked out safety ratings, talked to DH. Finally I picked out a carseat. Whew!

Then I found out it had been temporarily (?) discontinued. Plus, the similar model we found (available only in a travel system, which we don't need) turned out to have an almost impossible to adjust handle. Even DH could barely raise or lower it because the release buttons were so difficult to push. It was nice other than that, but an infant carrier isn't much good if you can't raise and lower the handle.

Back to square one.



Yesterday DH and the girls and I took one of my most realistically-sized and weighted dolls (I collect them) to Babies R' Us and another store and tried out infant car seats. It really helps to have something about the right size and weight to strap in the infant carrier and carry around.

All I knew for sure was that I didn't want an Evenflo seat . . . I've owned several carseats of that brand and have been very unhappy with the product and the customer service, and their safety ratings are poor in comparison to other seats. I was willing to at least consider pretty much anything else. It had to have a 5-point harness and the new higher weight/height limits, and we were trying to keep the cost under $100 if possible.

So we proceeded to go into two stores and give people heart attacks with our doll, which looked a little too realistic to be handling as casually as we were. :) I think I may have talked the BRU location into considering keeping some dolls around for people to try out in the various products. You really can't tell how the straps and buckles work or how a carrier balances without putting something like a doll in it to try it out.

After coming home and doing a bit more research, we finally decided on a new Graco Snugride infant seat with the new 22 lb/29 inch weight limit. Those extra 2 pounds and 3 inches of usability will probably give us at least 6 months extra to use the seat at the rate our petite girls grow. Now we just have to shop around to find the best combination of features (i.e. the GracoPedic foam padding) and price.

All right, since it's now after 6 a.m. I'm going to try to go back to sleep. :) Thankfully, BIL and SIL have been here so much in the last couple of weeks that our kids have started to adjust to nephew J's sleep schedule--going to bed and getting up later--so it will hopefully be 2-3 hours before the kids get up.