18 weeks and 1 day

So, I popped my due date into this little thing-a-ma-jigger and it told me that I am more than 18 weeks pregnant. Uh. No. Could I possibly be almost halfway through this pregnancy?! No way!!

*sigh*

Denial won't change it. This pregnancy is getting away from me. I swore I'd enjoy every minute of it- and I am, so why is it going by so quickly?!

I have his newborn cloth diapers ready, I have some little newborn wool sleep cocoons (will post pictures next week when the custom I ordered gets here), some little teeny clothes that I'm planning to dye when I dye his prefolds all sorts of beautiful colors.

Basically? This baby boy could make his grand entrance tomorrow and have everything he needs, except for a carseat! But of course, he needs to stay in for another 22 weeks- which gives me that much longer to obsess about it. And the nesting hasn't even kicked in yet. I am in such trouble... even though I'm totally going the handmade, minimalistic route with this little boy's items!

18 weeks and 1 day with baby #3

I think I popped a bit since my last picture! :)

Carseat Post #2 with pictures!

Happy Tuesday, everyone! As a follow-up to the post I made yesterday about my support of extended rear-facing, I thought I would post some pictures of my little ones in their carseats! I took these this afternoon around lunch time, so pardon the glaring light!


This is my 26 month old son, Jackson. I am not entirely sure what he weighs at the moment, but he is wearing 2T clothes and growing like a weed! He is in a Britax Marathon carseat, which has a rear-facing limit of 35lbs. and a forward-facing limit of 80lb. I didn't check height limits, because both of my kids are fairly short, so the weight limit will be an issue before the height limit will. (My love, Keelin, is shielding her eyes from the light in the background. Sweet girl!)

I do not have a LATCH system in my car, so the carseats are secured with seatbelts. We climb in the car, putting weight in the seat, in order to get the belts as tight as they should be. Those suckers are going nowhere!

When I turned him forward-facing, he liked being able to see where we were going and wasn't thrilled when I turned him back rear-facing. To make the transition back to rear-facing easier for him, we brought out some books, toy cars, stickers, etc. that are "for carseat use only!!" :) So we went on and on about how AWESOME Jackson's big boy carseat was and how GREAT it was that it faced backwards!!! Then we made a huge fuss about Jackson's fun car toys that he can only have if he's buckled into his seat. Now, he thinks that getting in the car is the best thing since sliced bread! I know that not everyone will have such an easy time with a rear-facing two year old, but I can only tell you what worked well for us.


My sweet love, Keelin, forward-facing at 41lbs and almost 5 years old. The straps are nice and tight, the chest clip is where it should be, and her seat was installed the same way Jackson's was. That sucker is going nowhere. Gotta love the mud on the side of her carseat. That's what happens when you hurl yourself into the van straight from the playground area of our backyard where you were communing with mud. She's also in a Britax Marathon.

We bought these two carseats in December of 2009, when we were in our accident two days before Christmas. I wouldn't put them back in the wrecked carseats, so I went to Target and got the only two Britax seats they had- hence the fact that they don't match (which does bother me a bit, lol). My back was so messed up from the accident, that I had to get the guys at the car rental place to install them for me when I picked up my loaner while my car was in the shop. You should have seen me asking these mechanics to climb up in the seats so that the belts would be tighter! ;) They looked at me like I was absolutely mad!


Here is a picture of the carseats with no munchkins in them. I keep the LATCH belts attached, because I get to use them when we put the carseats in someone's car that has the LATCH system. Looks a little goofy to have straps hanging everywhere, but I hope to one day have a LATCH system installed in my vehicle, so I'm hanging on to all of the pieces and parts :)

Addressing the issue that a lot of people have mentioned ("What about their legs?!")- Jackson, in the first picture, has one leg bent and the other hanging out on the back of the seat. He took a nap in the car this afternoon with both legs crossed, clearly comfortable enough to go to sleep! Sometimes I look back and see him poking a leg out towards Keelin, goofing off with his feet (he's a no shoe kinda guy if he can help it, so they're off the minute we get in the car- haha), kicking the seat, trying to put his toes on the window, etc. There hasn't been a time yet where he has seemed uncomfortable and I really paid attention to him at stop lights and in parking lots today, just to see if I noticed him acting like it bothered him. And he was fine, just like I imagined he would be.

I hope this post has been more positive than my last one. I was super frustrated last night with the negative reactions that people were giving to the newest recommendations on carseat safety, so my claws popped out. I find that people listen much better to reason and passion than they do to fussing and judging, but I am human and sometimes it shows. I hope that anyone considering extended rear-facing is encouraged by my photos. Let me know if you have any questions!

A vent about carseats!

This will probably be one of the most judgemental posts you will ever read of mine and I will go ahead and give the disclaimer now, but I absolutely will not apologize for it. I mean every word that I'm about to say.

Reading the discussions online regarding the recent AAP recommendation that parents rear-face their kids until two has really made me think. I rear-faced Jackson until he was a year and a half old. He was 19 months old when I turned him- it was actually around the time he self-weaned. I decided that with this baby, I would rear-face him until he hit the weight/height limit on his carseat and knowing how skinny my kiddos are, that will be when he is around 4 years old. This is why...

The science behind extended rear-facing is undeniable. Rear-facing kids in 5 point harnesses are 500% safer than their forward-facing counterparts. That is a HUGE number!

I turned Jackson because I felt happy with my decision to continue rear-facing him until he was 19 months old. I thought that him having the extra 7 months was GOOD! And it was! If I'd turned him earlier than a year, he very well could have died two days before Christmas in 2009 when we were rear-ended by an SUV (that put me in physical therapy for 6 weeks 6 times a day and still causes me back pain) at a red light by being internally decapitated (a major cause of car accident deaths in kids that forward face too early, because their spines are still in 3 separate "pieces" and their heads are sooo heavy compared to the rest of their bodies)- which is not a thing meant to cause doubt or fear- look up the YouTube videos! He was 11 months old at the time. If I'd turned him "a month early," I could have lost my son, so I am passionate and outspoken about this.

Do NOT turn your child forward-facing before 1 year. In my opinion, it is reckless and dangerous. Any excuse that a mother could come up with to do so is NOT good enough and she needs to have her head examined.

As far as the moms I know making fun of the recommendation to extend rear-facing until 2, saying that their kid screams or their legs are scrunched- turn up the music and let them cross their legs. A loud kid is better than a silent, dead kid. Yes, I said it. I don't like everything the American Academy of Pediatrics says (read: vaccines)- but this is good information that is undeniable, even for a crunchy skeptic like me.

I didn't rear-face Jackson until two, but if I knew then what I know now, I absolutely would have, at a minimum. Keelin is too tall and too heavy to rear-face in her Britax, but I am thankful that I kept her rear-facing for well over a year. And again, I thought I was doing pretty good, there.

You live and you learn. Don't hear the facts and mock them. Take the facts to heart, take the research in and make a positive change for your kids. With Keelin, I didn't even know people kept their kids rear-facing past a year. I felt like the odd man out! With Jackson, I felt like I was doing something good, but didn't realize how seriously he could be injured in an accident even up to the age of two. I thought that at 1 we were out of the "danger zone" and anything past that was just gravy on my safe baby!

With our third child, Little No-Name, I am ready to bring him into this world and rear-face him until the cows come home, nurse him until he stops- there is no amount of ridicule that will change my mind, no differing opinions that will make me choose popular opinion over the absolute best for my children.

Now, here is where I am going to get a little judgey.

I do judge moms that buckle their kids in with big coats on and don't listen when told it's dangerous. Your child is not in their seat tightly enough if they are wearing a coat.

I do judge moms that leave carseat straps loose, when the dang directions tell you how to buckle them and tighten the straps properly. Read. The. Directions. Please, no slack straps! And chest buckles go on the chest, not near their lap!

I judge moms that forward face before a year, because there is NO excuse for it. It's dangerous AND illegal. I only personally know two people that have done it and I was absolutely appalled.

I judge moms that carry their babies in bucket seats with their legs hanging out- get the kiddo a convertable carseat and HOLD your baby! Heck, I'll give you one of my extra baby carriers or wraps! Just pick up that child, please! And get them a carseat they fit in properly. Geez.

I judge my mom friends that put their kids in booster seats with seatbelts when they are NOT old enough (yes, manufacturers say they are, but not safety experts) to be in one. They aren't recommended by safety experts until kids are SIX and the manufacturers say FOUR and 40lbs. That is absurd! Put the child in a 5 point harness and potentially save his or her life.

If I offended someone, okay. But I think that when you have the right information about safety issues regarding your kids and choose to do what is cute, convenient, or cheapest- then you really just need to hear the facts one more time, I hope. I know there are a few mommies that read my blog and a lot of you have similar parenting mindsets to my own, so I doubt any of you are going to read this and be offended, but I offended some people on my Facebook earlier, so I figured I should put up a warning :)