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When installing a car seat, put your shoulder into it.

Not a car seat.

Not a car seat.

Over the weekend we installed our second, non-infant, car seat. Lily is finally outgrowing her first one and so we’ve got a big new fancy one. I swear it’s more comfortable than the rest of the seats in the car.

Anyway, installing car seats is a pain. But I realized that instead of just pushing down on the car seat with your hand, like the instructions say, if you actually put your shoulder against the car seat and put your weight into it, it you can push it down much farther, and do a better job of securing it into place.

Still, I worry that it’s not installed as good as it should be, but I’m at a loss of how to get it any tighter. It’s not going anywhere, but I worry any way as they say most car seats are not installed correctly.

Either way, now we have to figure out how to get her in and out in the car as it seems like a tight fit. I like the idea of not having to lug the carrier around, but then again, that means I’m now the carrier!

We also have to figure out how to get mom to see her. In the last car seat, we had mirrors setup so that mom could see Lily at all times. This seat is to big and mom can’t see Lily, but Lily can see the cars behind her!

Ahh the fun of car seats.


4 Responses

  1. SPOC says:

    haha, we have a hole in our headrest (the car came that way, i swear) so my wife just uses the mirror in the visor to see Gabe through the hole. works perfectly actually.

    I actually got hate mail from a family member for putting Gabe in a forward facing car seat and we waited until the recommened age/weight. She’s a car seat nazi though 😀

    • Thomas says:

      I’m looking for some creative ways to setup mirrors to make this work. Sad part is, it’ll probably distract the driver!

  2. gml4 says:

    Be careful about putting a car seat in too tight! I attended a infant/child car seat training last year, and this topic came up.

    The instructor warned us about big strong dads (like you and I!) that actually weaken the car seat by forcing into the car too much. The car seat could actually break in an accident!

    So don’t go all macho on the car seat… just make sure its snug. Your arm strength will be plenty.

    • Thomas says:

      I’m not sure I could put it in to tight as I’m not that strong. But thanks for the compliment. 😀

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