car seat conundrum…
Since I have been a parent I have had car seat safety driven into my brain… I KNOW the dangers of Forward Facing. I know that babies, toddlers and even kids should be Rear facing for as long as possible… I know that!!
Here is the problem… no RF car seat in Canada is made to go past 30lbs. For 2 months now, Khéna has been too heavy for his car seat… and I have been ignoring this fact even though I should not have been… he however is too young to be FF…
I called everywhere… No one can give me answers…. the inspection offices, the police station, the CAA (that trains the inspection agents) Evenflo, Canada Road Safety and the Safety Council of Canada etc… it was all the same answer…. he is too big for the carseat to remain RF, too young to FF….
What do I do? What Can I do? Not leave the house with Khéna?
How can I choose the lesser of two evils when it comes to the safety of my child?
eta
*there was one place that I left a message this morning and I got a call back and she told me to call another person that specializes in special cases (I didn’t think that his weight would amount to being a special case…lol) I left a message and should get called back tomorrow…
* 07-31 : OK… so I haven’t got a call yet but I thought today was Aug 1st, so I should get a call tomorrow…
So my options for now are this… the 30 pounds that are written on the canadian carseats are mostly because for a while the laws said a max of 30lbs, which has now been changed back to 35 lbs, though the car seats don’t specify that yet… the Triumph is a seat that has a limit of 30 lbs in the US and Canada, so I need to get him out of that seat.
We are not allowed to bring any US (or other) seats into Canada so that is not an option. and really there are non that would help. However, the other boys are in Cosco Alpha Omega’s and though the limit is written as 30lbs, they are 35lbs in the US, so we at least know that the seat is approved to 35lbs even if it not written on the Canadian sticker….
After 35lbs though there seems to be no RF carseats (canada or US) and I will have to change him to FF which I DO NOT want to do. Hopefully he will stop gaining weight before we get to that point though… Also, since he will surely outgrow the harness on most carseats FF pretty soon (they are mostly 40lbs) I will be getting a Regent which goes up to 65lbs for the FF harness…
* 08-02
I got the call and she said that there is nothing that we can do and that once he has outgrown the sticker weight that he must go FF… I still think he is WAY too young to young. It just wouldn’t feel right. Like I said, hopefully he will stop gaining and hopefully he will lose a bit with his new found mobility.
Khéna is crawling!
The other boys were quick to crawl and to walk… crawling before 6 months and taking steps by 9 months…
Because of his size I knew that Khéna would be a bit later… I really enjoyed the time that I could just sit him down and know that he would stay at the same place… he has been able to go from tummy to sitting for about 2 weeks now and when he started to do that he would get around that way… laying on his tummy and then sitting up a bit further… then he started doing a crawl with one leg straight and on one knee… and then a few days ago he started the “traditional” crawl…
He can also pull him self up easily now and loves to stand in the bath and around the couch…
It is amazing to see him grow and change…
another milestone…
Another milestone birthday is coming up…
Tomorrow, not only will I be a day older than I am today.. it will also be the day that I turn 30.
Between the feverish dreams that I had last night (being sick in the summer sucks btw…) I layed awake and remembered so many years ago when I used to think to the future when I would be 30… it was so far, so foreign at that time…
Tomorrow, I will be there though…
I can’t say that I am too effected by it really but it is one of those big milestone birthdays… so it does take a bit more time in my thoughts..
I think that I have done well to be where I am by the age of 30. I have 3 beautiful children, I have a great, loving husband, we have a house and the things that we need. Though there are things in my life I would like to change, things I have yet to accomplish… I am only 30 and I still have many years ahead of me.
5 years in…
The 5th birthday seemed to affect me more than many of the others… There is something about the first birthday and now the 5th that are special… and I assume there are others later on that will do the same.
5 years ago I became a mom, a parent. I went from being alone to having a baby, another being that relied on me.
We went from being a couple to being a family.
I took those transformations not as negative but as positive and so did Simon. I knew from the time before I was pregnant, before he was born, that there was nothing I wanted to do more than stay home with my children, raise them completely, be the primary caregiver and parent. When I held him the first time, when I examined every little hair on his body, when I gave him his first bath, heard those first coos and words, saw those first steps I know that I would never regret being a full time parent.
5 years ago, I was holding my new babe and going to sleep as a family in our home for the first time… I was nursing for the first times, I was holding a tiny new life in my arms… not only any life but one that was created out of the love Simon and I share.
I would have never have thought that 5 years later I would still be nursing… not the same babe anymore but 2 others…
I would have never have thought I would feel so passionate about being a SAHM and the importance of breastfeeding, babywearing, positive parenting, natural living, unschooling and so many other issues. I would have never though that being a SAHM was as tough as it is sometimes but at the same time the most rewarding job I could ever do…
5 years isn’t much time when you really think about it, but I have so much trouble remembering the time before we had kids… and you know what… though movie nights, suppers as a couple at a restaurant, going out anytime and just taking the keys were fun… in all in all…Â I don’t miss it…
it has been 5 years that I am a mom… wow….