car seats

Sophie owns the safest carseat a reasonable person could buy. I did a lot of research on carseats before we bought this one. This is her second, and final seat, so I wanted to make sure that we would have no regrets after spending so much on it. I had few requirements when I bought it: safe, comfortable. It also had our pediatrician’s blessing—that’s what she uses for her kids. But what really sold me on it was this review on Amazon.com:

“This car seat was a life saver!
Our daughter is almost 4 months now and cried everytime we placed her in her infant seat, except on the day home from the hospital. We couldn't drive down the road without listening to screams - the only time we went anywhere was if she was asleep and often she woke up the minute we put her in her seat. My 8 year old and I would both sit in the back seat with her, it didn't matter. I read the reviews on this seat so we went to 2 different stores and placed her in the demo. She was fine. My mother offered to purchase it for us so we got it. Sketptical? I was skeptical, so I first took her for a 5 minute ride - no crying. The next day I chanced 15 minutes - still no crying. The third day we went to my mother's - a 40 minute drive each way. Within a week we were willing to try her on a 3 hour trip. She did great! I think the key for us was my daughter can see out and doesn't feel confined like the infant seat. She spends most trips gazing out the window and quietly sucking her thumb.”

I had very high expectations after this review. I too wanted a quiet, thumb-sucking baby in the backseat of my car! I figured the day we installed this seat, Sophie would love driving around more than she did in her previous car seat, which she progressively enjoyed less and less. Sophie never cried as much this baby, so I figured we had less ground to cover. When we finally installed the car seat, nothing really changed. At first we still had it rear facing so I wasn't too surprised that she' wasn't thrilled, but when we turned it facing forward, I had imagined a peaceful baby everywhere we went. That wasn’t the case. Even the 10-minute ride to daycare has been fraught with a yelp or two of frustration before arriving. Usually, we can’t go more than one or two places with her at a time because she gets fed up (read starts crying a lot) with driving around.

I think, I’d like to believe, however, that we’ve turned a corner. Drives to and from daycare have been happier and more cheerful, she’ll even laugh out loud for no apparent reason. Lately, she’s noticed that things exist outside of the car as we’re driving along. A couple of days ago, she pointed to a dog as we were driving through the neighborhood. Maybe noticing that there are things to look at keeps her calmer longer. Maybe she’s realizing that she sometimes it’s ok to just lie back, suck your thumb and watch the dogs go by.