Buckle Up for Safety

I'm prepared for this baby. She has clean clothes in her drawers, fresh towels in the bathroom, sheets in her crib, diapers on her changing table and a mommy who desperately wants to meet her. But as of last week, I still had one thing left to do.

I tried reading the instruction manual for the car seat by myself and gave up after about ten minutes, nevermind actually installing it. So when Roy came to visit me and my belly in Louisville last weekend, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to get some help with the last mandatory baby item.

We went out to my car and got started. I had a simple job: read the instructions out loud.

We were both frustrated within 15 minutes. Roy described it to my mom as a "communication" error, which she thought was much funnier than I did.

Eventually, all three of us were working intently to install the base of the seat so it wouldn't shift more than an inch in any direction. (If you've never worked with a car seat before, the cardinal rule is that once installed properly, it shouldn't move more than one inch in any direction when you shake it.)

We tried to install the base on the back passenger side, but it shuffled around way too much. We speculated that the passenger seat had to be reclined to hold the seat in place, but that just didn't seem logical. Was I really supposed to move the passenger seat every time I wanted to get the baby in or out of the car? Surely not.

After we tried to call the manufacturer to ask for help, (no service on Sundays) Mom resorted to Youtube. After watching a video of a woman installing the exact same seat as the one I have, we tried again. The trick appeared to be applying a lot of pressure on the base with your legs while you tighten the straps. No luck.

At this point, I became quite disheartened. How could this Youtube woman have more strength in her legs than my 6-foot-something boyfriend? How could it possibly be this complicated?!

Mom piped up. "Well, she did say something about the middle of the back seat being the best place to put it if you can."

That one little tidbit was the secret. Note: It doesn't say anything about this in the instruction manual.

Vain and ridiculous as it may sound, I thought I had covered some basic knowledge of everything there is to know about preparing for a newborn. Imagine the giant piece of humble pie I had to choke down that day.

Now that my car is fully equipped to bring a baby home from the hospital, I have to admit that I couldn't have accomplished that particular task by myself. When I look back on the entire Sunday afternoon that was spent on something so comparatively small, I can laugh about it. Parenthood is obviously a non-stop learning experience, but if you don't take yourself too seriously and ask for help when you need it, the whole thing can be a fun ride- with proper safety precautions, of course.