*Baby Corner*

[chnst 6]

ha! funny you guys mention this. Hubby and I were just discussing it earlier. We decided to turn Ben around for our trip upstate today and see how it goes. See, I travel over 500 miles/week and he is getting huge and the last few trips have been constant wining and screaming from the minute I put him in his carseat. He weighs a little over 28lbs now in the Britax Boulevard. Not sure what the weight limit is. I am pro rear facing as long as you can handle it. It really is a problem when you have a huge non-compliant toddler.

I really wanted to have him rear-facing for at least 2 years but I am at the end of my rope. Of course I would feel terrible if something happens, but there needs to be more research and better carseats to accomodate a bigger child.

I have seen people who turn the seat around at 8 or 9 months, or even worse, I see it all the time in NYC people who have their kids on their laps without even a carseat! My husband has a coworker who uses the police car to pick up her 2 year old twins from daycare without carseats! She doesn't even have carseats for them since they outgrew the infant seats! But she loves to get mad and write tickets to people with children on their laps... Crazy world.

@Kelly: yeah our next walmart is in upper westchester about 45 Minutes from NYC. It is a crazy Madhouse even on normal weekdays. That's a good idea to look for a store further away. Good luck with your shopping!! We need to get together friday night and tell what we bought, ok? I am getting excited now!

oh and by the way Eveline- Allie is the most adorable little girl! soooo cute with her ring-pop and leggings! haaaah baby fever....

[tnh9479 1]

It is precisely the reason we got the GracoMyRide 65's....they rear face to 40 pounds. I intend on RF'ing our two until that time, or until Hana's legs get so long she can't comfortably ride RF'ing. I am a physics teacher. I have always talked to my students and had them tell me why on a test (with diagrams) it is safer for infants to be rearfacing. Heck...most of us would be safer rearfacing. Oh well...the driver has to see I guess!

[chnst 6]

speaking of Minivan's : have you guys seen the Volkswagon Routan? I'm not sure if I like minivan's but this thing is awesome! If I am ever going to drive one this will be it! Hubby and I checked it out at the cardealership the other day. The only thing that sucks it costs over $40.000 WTH!

[Anna C. 4]

@ chnst: Wow that is crazy. We have the same car seat and the RF weight limit is 35. I just found out that the new Radion goes up to 45 pounds RF, I think Santa will bring that thing this year. Jona doesn't mind being rear facing and it is the one thing I am not willing to give in when he is whining (I give in with car keys, the cell, the remotes etc....)... Just cause car rides are statistically really dangerous compared to catching the swine flu e.g. But we will see how it goes. He loves to look outside and is fine with that and for some reason sleeps really well in there.

The VW... It is expensive! I don't know how big it is inside compared to the Sienna. If I got the 15% discount through my VW engineer BIL I would consider it maybe, but it has no 4WD. And they don't snow shovel our roads here... The Sienna with the extras we want runs at $36K MRSP and I guess you can negotiate 2 grand off, but that's it if you order it, which we have to do. They produce so little right now that it's hard to find one on the lot that has the specs we want.

[Eveline 9]

Here are pictures of 1-4 year olds rear facing. They just fold up their legs or throw them over the sides. http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum.aspx

[Autumnchik 6]

Wow, guys, I am impressed by how many of you hit the Black Friday sales. I have never done it because I HATE HATE HATE shopping when there are crowds, but now I am a bit curious. Still probably not going, but if I lived closer to one of y'all, you could convince me to come with you definitely

I can't remember if I wrote about this ... so at Declan's 18 month check, he was 35 inches and just about 26 pounds. My tall skinny baby.

We took him to the doctor yesterday because he was limping (the day before, he pulled over a heavy vase onto his foot). Hubby was actually the one who wanted to take him to the doctor. Did an xray. Doctor says it looks fine, nothing broken. I swear, with having him checked for lead and then this, we have been at the doctor's so much lately.

FYI - I just learned that keys can contain lead so it is recommended not to let babies play with them. I've read so much on lead lately that my head is spinning

About Santa pics - we live near Santa's Village, this awesome little kid amusement park. It opens during the Xmas season, so we will head there and take Santa pics. I can't wait! We went last year too.

[chnst 6]

ugh you guys make me feel terrible. But I am sure it is a different story when you drive your kids to the store or school and not travel as many miles as we have to. I can deal with him flippimg out over shorter distances. But we drive 4 hours upstate and back and then 1 hour to school and back every day. I tried folding his legs but it doesn't work. He smashed the mirror on the headrest with his feet the other day. We will see how it goes. If it doesn't make a difference we will turn him rear facing again.

[Anna C. 4]

chnst: That's not easy. But check if it's just being in a car. My niece will scream no matter what, so what's the point of having her ff then... Jona loves to listen to German children songs in the car... That calms him down... Long rides are hard no matter what. When we drove from CA to WY he had a couple bouts of screaming...

@ autumn: very true about keys, I checked mine though and they are fine. I'm not proud though, but he whines at the supermarket and it just makes him happy for a couple minutes...

I hope Declan feels better soon.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Stef, Zaid hates the car too. he screams when he knows he is going in his seat. We turned his car seat forward facing a few months ago.. He is 36 inches and the way my back seat sits there is no way he could have sat rear facing. Fords are soooo tiny.

I am really looking forward to Black Friday. I plan to get Zaid alot of art supplies. He is very big on books and puzzles too. I love the Melissa and Doug puzzles and hope to find some at a decent price (wooden puzzles are soo expensive!)

Zaid goes for his 2nd flu shot next week. i really wish his peds office would have the h1n1 vaccine already. I just want to get it, and get it over with. Sick of worrying about who he is around and such. Alot of my friends kids got VERY ill from h1n1. One of my friends 10 month old almost died. She has been on breathing treatments and after 3 weeks of being diagnosed, Im told she is just now eating and sleeping.

We arent doing santa pics this year , hubby is muslim, as is Zaid. So we do presents and get together with the family and thats about it. We will probably get family pictures done next month but only bc we havent had Zaids pics done since 12 months. He is so uncooperative the past month I dont even know that pics would be possible right now. We can hardly go grocery shopping lately

[Vi Mazzella 4]

Funny thta you are mentioning the carseats, today we were talking about getting a new car seat fro Sofia. The one we use is the one that ame with her stroller (Evenflo - Travel system) and it seems tha she is outgrowing it. Today we went to BRUS and we sae a bunch of them with so many different prices, going from $59 up to....$$$$$. Wich one will you recommend? we want one that she can use for a long, long time.

[Staashi 371]

For my granddaughter's first birthday, we could celebrate by reversing her car baby sit so she no longer had to stare at the rear seat of the car. Far safer as the baby seat had it own straps with hooks that clipped unto the cars hooks located in the crack where the bottom seat meets the upper upright, but kind of difficult to do that as those hooks were far back. Then it had an additional third hook at the package tray, that carpeted area that collects dust under the rear window.

With the seat facing rearward, had to use that crazy shoulder belt with a clip on it.

Really don't know who makes these laws, a driver does have some control in a head on collision, but several years ago, my son was stopped at a traffic light with vehicles in front of him and was rear ended by a drunk driving 30 mph, that really crushed the rear end of his vehicle. Granddaughter wasn't born then, but that would have been nasty if she was in there at the time. You have no control in a situation like that. If she was in the rear seat, her chances of minimizing injuries would be far less if facing forward. Facing rearward, her big head even with the shoulder belts installed could have snapped her neck in an accident like that. Facing forward, her head would be resting against the seat. Wonder if these idiots think about stuff like this that make the laws.

I still don't like all those clips you have to fool with to get the kid out in a hurry, three of them, terrible to read about babies that were burned alived because their parents couldn't get them out. Minivans are the worse vehicles for this, if those large sliding doors get jammed, can't open the damned things. Just hope that never happens to my grandkids. Far better off to get a large gas guzzling SUV with a lot more meat on it. But the EPA and government don't like those things.

FALSE. Please read the facts. It's actually recommended to keep babies in their seats rear facing up to TWO years nowadays.

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx

(good facts)

Only about 4% of accidents are from the back 96% are in a moving vehicle or frontal..which will most likely rip the head off of a babie's spine cause those muscles are still not developed enough.

Even if it is convenient for you and it seems better for the baby it scares me that people turn the carseats when baby is only 1 year old. It's too young.

Allie is now 15 months/26lbs and I still don't want to turn her around.

We will not be turning Enzo around for quite some time...not worth the risk to us.

Eve - they call that internal decapitation. I want no part of it. Scares me to death.

[NickD 203]

Wisconsin children younger than 1 and all children who weigh less than 20 pounds are required to be in a rear-facing infant seat; children 1 through 3 years who weigh at least 20 pounds but less than 40 pounds are required to be in a forward-facing child safety seat; children 4 through 7 who both weigh at least 40 pounds but less than 80 pounds and who are less than 57 inches tall are required to be in a booster seat.

Looks like we would be in no trouble if we drove into Minnesota, Michigan, or Illinois.

Really can't say one is wrong with 50 different states and 50 different sets of laws,over one year of age and twenty pounds, must be in a forward facing seat in Wisconsin.

If I drive a 57 Chevy that didn't come with seat belts, neither have to install them and definitely not use them, but if the car came equipped with safety belts, can get a 200 buck fine for not wearing them even though these cars also have an air bag, won't find those in a 57 Chevy. I don't make the laws, just get confused by them.

[Staashi 371]

speaking of Minivan's : have you guys seen the Volkswagon Routan? I'm not sure if I like minivan's but this thing is awesome! If I am ever going to drive one this will be it! Hubby and I checked it out at the cardealership the other day. The only thing that sucks it costs over $40.000 WTH!

Stef - I loved the Routan. We would have bought that if VW had made us a deal. It was about $32,000 with 60 months 0% interest. We ended up with a Chevy Traverse which I LOVE!!! It is amazing how much room this thing has. We enjoy it so much. The Chevy dealer made a great deal with us.

Keep your eye out for a few months you could probably find an awesome deal on a Routan with the 2010s coming out.

[Eveline 9]

Wisconsin children younger than 1 and all children who weigh less than 20 pounds are required to be in a rear-facing infant seat; children 1 through 3 years who weigh at least 20 pounds but less than 40 pounds are required to be in a forward-facing child safety seat; children 4 through 7 who both weigh at least 40 pounds but less than 80 pounds and who are less than 57 inches tall are required to be in a booster seat.

Looks like we would be in no trouble if we drove into Minnesota, Michigan, or Illinois.

Really can't say one is wrong with 50 different states and 50 different sets of laws,over one year of age and twenty pounds, must be in a forward facing seat in Wisconsin.

If I drive a 57 Chevy that didn't come with seat belts, neither have to install them and definitely not use them, but if the car came equipped with safety belts, can get a 200 buck fine for not wearing them even though these cars also have an air bag, won't find those in a 57 Chevy. I don't make the laws, just get confused by them.

Do you have source for this? There's no LAW that makes turning the seat around mandatory. It's your choice.

[Eveline 9]

http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/safety/vehicl...t-law-facts.pdf

OK I found the source and it surprises me that they say that the child "MUST" be in a forward facing seat...weird. I guess I"m off to asking the mothers. Maybe all they are talking about is that the child "MUST" be in a convertible? Why would you put your child in danger with having to face them forward?