August 28, 2011

Sunday Life Saver

I'm having a VERY hard time giving up the infant car seat for Tudles (my 13 month old son).  You might think it's because I am in denial that he is not a baby anymore, as BabyCenter's weekly email titled "Your TODDLER this week" kindly reminds me.  But no, its not that!  I've got a bad case of Parental Insanity during 3 hours of church.  Toodles will take the occasional afternoon nap during church ONLY if he is strapped in to that lovely apparatus.

I think about the fact that he really needs a forward facing TODDLER seat every time I see those legs curled up in the car or like today when I put him in it during church and his feet were literally hanging 3 to 4 inches off the end.  Picture this...


OK not that bad!  I know some of you are thinking how unsafe this is, but honestly we are planning on getting one just as soon as Mr. Medic lands a super sweet J-O-B (keep your eyes and ears peeled for anything medical, preferably, and pass the word along.  We will love you Sandlot style)



Anyway back to the point.  Tudles usually falls asleep just long enough for me to focus on the most important part of church, taking the sacrament or bread and water.  But of course after a good 30 minutes of effort, he didn't fall asleep.  So I decided to keep the kid strapped in.  To my surprise he lasted a whopping 45 minutes allowing me to still be focused and to actually listen to the talks.  It was my Sunday life saver!  

I was just telling Mr. Medic this very morning that I dread church because Tudles is so disruptive and I don't hear a single word that is spoken.  Blessings do come in mysterious ways, even if it does require you to look like a total white trash weirdy keeping your child strapped in a car seat that is far to small!


4 comments:

  1. if it's just his legs that are too long it is still safe! i'm pretty sure it's only if his head is a certain distance from the top that it matters. actually the american academy of pediatrics changed their rear facing guidelines recently so you should check it out. what i've gathered from it is that rear facing is the safest, so do it as long as possible. thecarseatlady.com has some good info if you want to consider rear facing!
    i'm just glad our gigantic convertible even fits rear facing in our little 2 door car, though i admit it's a pain getting liv in and out of it!

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  2. Eleanor is still rear facing and it is perfectly safe- just get a convertible carseat that can rear face. It is actually MUCH safer to extend rear face then it is to forward face. Eleanor always sits with her legs crossed or just plays with her toes, she has never seemed mad about being rearfaced. :)

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  3. PS the newest recommended guidelines are to rearface to 2 years

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  4. We have a convertible car seat that can face rear or forward. It wasn't so much that Kyle was starting to grow out of it (well he was) but that I needed a car seat for Sariah. Heck I don't think I have used a car seat in church with Kyle for a long time. He actually does really well during Sacrament and makes momma proud.

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