introduction... Went to the tech today!

momtovamm

New member
Hi all,

I've been reading/posting in the car seat forum for a few weeks and would love to stay on the board and keep learning what I can. So since I'm going to be hanging out here at whiles, I thought I'd introduce myself formally :) . My name is Heather and I live in the metropolitan Philly area. I drive an '05 Dodge Caravan and I've got three kids in car seats:

6 YO girl (bday is today!), 45 lbs 45 in, in a HB Graco TurboBooster
3 1/2 YO boy, 42 lbs 41 in, mild developmental issues, in a Safety 1st Apex (my car) and Fisher Price Safe Voyage (DH's Ford Focus)
2 MO baby girl, 12 lbs 2 oz and 23 1/2 in (her well baby appt was yesterday!), in a Graco Snugride.

I'm a mostly SAHM, certified as an elementary school teacher, and my chief passion currently is teaching early childhood music; I'm a registered Music Together teacher and currently teach just a few classes a week owing to the new arrival.

My story is that we unfortunately lost our first baby, a little girl, back in 1999 to a rare placental complication. When my six year old was born a year later, we were determined to buy the best car seat available and learn to use it correctly. At the time, one of the nicer models was the Fisher Price Safe Embrace II with brand-new LATCH. We also bought an '00 Ford Focus that year, the first year that particular car had LATCH (I *think* it was the first year, anyway). After she outgrew her Century infant seat/carrier which I used without the base and installed with the belt, because I'd heard that forgoing the convenience of the base was slightly safer, I installed the Safe Embrace as best I could... I'm pretty sure it was a solid install, anyway... and did my best to put her in it correctly each time without bulky clothing and with a nice tight harness with the clip at the appropriate level. At 15 months I turned her FF and rethreaded the harness straps as instructed by the manual. I'd no idea that I could have left her RF and kept her safer! And I never did go to see a CPST, although I do vaguely recall someone telling me that having my install checked by a tech would be a smart thing to do.

When she turned four, I handed down the seat to her brother, who was 18 months and riding RF in a Cosco Opus Designer 35, which I was also using without the base and installing directly with a belt, again, because I'd heard it was safer. I turned him FF in the Safe Embrace (again, having no idea that I should just leave him RF until he hit the seat's weight and height limits) and demoted my daughter to a backless booster.

At the end of last summer, we had a new baby coming along and I realized that she'd need a new seat, because the old Cosco Opus simply wouldn't fit in our new van. I bought her an inexpensive 3 pt harness seat and then realized that my son was just at the 40 lb mark. So sometime in August I took him out of the Safe Embrace and put him in a backless booster, and what a nightmare that has been! I never felt like he belonged in a belt yet... he just didn't seem big or mature enough... and with his developmental issues, compliance was frequently a problem.

So FINALLY I got on the 'Net a few weeks ago to see if I had any harnessing options beyond 40 lbs, and then after doing a bit of reading I realized how far my knowledge of child car seat safety had fallen behind the times and was additionally aghast at a few mistakes I'd been making over the years! I've been up night after night devouring every thread I can find that pertains to the ages and stages of my own children as well as the vehicle I drive and the seats I've been considering, and after careful consideration and review of our budgetary constraints came up with the configuration above. Put the backless boosters in storage, bought two new seats for my son and re-harnessed him in both cars (DH drives him to preschool in the morning), bought a new HBB for my elder daughter, and ditched the cheap 3 pt harness infant seat for a much better 5 pt seat. Found a tech this morning, made an appointment, drove up there with my two younger in the Caravan, and... I can't believe this...

... my new seats were correctly installed.

All three of them.

I can only credit this board.

The guy couldn't believe I'd gotten such a rock solid install on the infant and combination seats, and after being barraged with questions wondered aloud if I'd enjoy becoming a CPST at some point.

I did make one mistake... the baby's harness was a bit slack on one side (she's a very floppy infant, and sometimes I curse under my breath trying to strap her into this thing because she's so hard to position). But everything else passed muster, and the CPST--REALLY nice and knowledgeable fellow-- showed me some tricks for helping to get the best harness fit on the babe.

(BTW, I AM using the base now on the infant seat. I've been worried about base failure for a long time since a friend of mine told me that a friend of hers, a state trooper, was on site at the scene of a particularly horrible crash in which the base-to-seat attachment mechanism failed and the seat was ejected from the car. From my research, however, it seems that the Graco Snugride isn't prone to this problem.)

Anyway... I'll probably mostly be lurking and reading everything I can, because I am seriously considering becoming a CPST when time and money afford me the opportunity. Nobody could have prevented what happened to my first baby, but for some time now I've been wanting to find a way to help prevent tragedies to other people's children... this might just be the ticket. For anyone who's gotten all the way to the bottom of this long post... please accept a blanket THANK YOU for everyone on the site who's been so helpful and answered so many of my questions already!

--Heather
 
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