At our second of third childbirth class, we were selected to install our car seat so one of the instructors could show the class the proper way to do it, since we had the first due date of all the couples in the class. While it might seem like a simple task, there is a lot more to it than I had originally thought.

I knew that infants must be placed in a rear facing car seat. We have this one from The First Years. It’s the typical infant seat where the base stays in the car, but the seat can be removed if the baby is sleeping or the parents would rather buckle him or her up in the house and carry the seat to the car. The base is for convenience, and the car seat can be used without it.

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According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, “Because infants’ spines are developing and their heads are proportionally large for their bodies, injury to their head or spine may occur if not properly restrained.” Our car seat has a side angle indicator, which is a little metal ball inside a plastic case that rolls back and forth along a colored sticker to indicate whether or not the seat is in the proper position. It’s green in the middle and red at each end. There is a level that helps get the seat in the best position in case the seat of the car is slanted too much one way or another.

In addition, the seat and base should not move more than an inch in any direction, which means it has to be very tightly secured. When my husband installed ours, he pulled the straps as tight as he possibly could, but the instructor took the seat out and kneeled on top of the base to push it down into the seat so he could tighten it even more. While this doesn’t bode well for a nice leather interior, it does help get the seat as secure as possible. We used the LATCH attachments in our car, which are metal hooks that are hidden where the back and bottom parts of the seat meet instead of the seat belt, which can also be used to secure the base. But both should not be used together according to the 2009 Safe Ride News Publications.

This car has little buttons to indicate the LATCH feature.

Before we were gifted our car seat for one of our showers, my Mr. TTT’s sister generously offered to give us hers from when her children were infants. While I usually agree that free hand me downs are much better than spending money on something new, I was hesitant for this particular item due to safety concerns. SRN states, “A second-hand car seat may have hidden safety problems… Try not to use a car seat that is older than 6 years.” The seat that was offered to us was used with both of my SIL’s children, the older of which is eight. That means that it was purchased more than six years ago. It also had a piece missing, which probably could have been replaced, but we knew our baby would be safest in a new seat and luckily, someone bought one for us!

One more thing I was worried about was that both of our cars are sedans. My car only has two doors, making it very difficult to get the infant car seat in and out. Mr. TTT has a four door sedan, but we’ve been wanting to sell it for a while because it isn’t in the best shape. It’s a nice car, but we both don’t feel comfortable with the baby riding around in it all the time. I had been wanting to get a small SUV for a while, but recently lost hope that it would happen before the baby arrived. However, last weekend, my husband decided to take his car into CarMax to see how much they’d offer him for it, and they offered much more than we were expecting. It was enough to pay off the last few payments on my car and put a decent down payment on an SUV, so we still only ended up with one car payment – one that is less than the one I had for my car.

I LOVE it and am so happy we were able to get it done before the baby arrived. While an SUV isn’t absolutely necessary for a baby in a car seat, it makes getting the baby in and out so much easier, especially with our unique driveway. With the sedans, we couldn’t park in the driveway and open the passenger or back doors all the way in order to put the baby in. That means we would have to park on the street, which is down a few steps and less ideal for carting a heavy sleeping baby in a heavy car seat. Now, with the height of the SUV, we can easily open the back doors all the way to put the seat and baby in the car.

Another benefit of an SUV is that when we go somewhere with the baby and our two dogs (to Mr. TTT’s parents’ ranch, road trips, etc), the dogs can ride in the very back and we won’t have to worry about them being so close to the baby.

Once baby TTT grows out of the infant seat, we’ll move on to a convertible one, though I’m hoping we can get one like the Graco Smart Seat, which can be used as a convertible and booster seat, up to 100 lbs. Still, car seats should face the rear until at least 18-24 months, according to SRN. Additionally, California law requires children to ride in a booster seat until they are at least 8 years old or 4ft 9in in height. I know a few adults who are that height!

Turns out we’ll be using our infant car seat very soon!