Tricky Car Seat

Today Ian and I are going to make our way to Goore's, a baby store in Sacramento where are infant carseat was purchased. They have certified carseat installers... and I think we need some help. We have a tricky (at least I think so) car seat situation...

Research shows that 80% of carseats are installed incorrectly. I figured, "How hard can it be? Just follow directions, right?" So on Monday night, after easily putting together are car seat stroller frame and frustratingly putting together our porta-crib (Man does that portable crib have a lot of hard to attach "clips" and some not so great directions)... we decided let's just finish it all and get the carseat installed and all will be ready for whenever the baby arrives. We cleaned the inside of the windows (you don't want to know what the outside of our car looks like, yikes!), put up a sun shade and one of those "Baby on Board" things in the back window. Then we proceed to install the carseat per the manufacturer's instructions.

We have the base (the part that the carseat carrier will click into so we don't have to "reinstall" the carseat every time) in according to the instructions, but it seems to budge more than it looks like it should. So we try it again. Finally satisfied, we click the carseat in... only to realize that the little level thing on the carseat carrier shows we have it too far tilted. Oops. So we unclick the carseat carrier, undo the base and proceed to rectify the over-tilt. It's pretty easy because the base has different tilted positions that it can be set to. Once we "fix" that, we again install the base... and click the carrier in... and then check everything. "Looks" good. Then the test, how far does it budge when you physically try to move it back, forward, side to side and so forth... pretty good... EXCEPT for in one direction - Up. Ok, the manufacturer's directions don't say anything about seeing if the carseat can tilt up on the farthest forward end (where your knees would be if you were sitting in the back seat), but it just seemed like one of the ways you should see if the carseat moves... and it doesn't tilt like just an inch... it can be tilted several inches off the seat. (Imagine the carseat lifting up off the seat on the edge, with the place where a normal adult's butt would be is the pivot point.) We again relook at all the possible instructions, carseat and car instructions, and it says nothing about how to fix that. So, is it our car? Is it the carseat? Is it the carseat with our car? Is "up" not one of the directions carseats are tested for? It would be disastrous in a rollover for the carseat to move that way. Ian points out in a front collision (and probably side collision) the carseat and baby would be fine because of the physics of motion, but then I ask about the recoil which happens after the collision. Now we're both stumped. We tried tightening, uninstalling and installing the carseat several more times with no luck. We consider the LATCH system, another way to install the carseat without using the shoulder/lap belt and is built into most new cars now, but decide it to would have the same effect. Eventually, we just decide... we need some professional help with this thing.

So, I called the Davis Police Station, they have one officer who does appointments. He has yet to call us back, two days later. If this baby comes soon and we're still in limbo with this carseat... Ian will have to figure out a way to get it checked (and quick) on his own. So, since we're not in labor yet, we're going back to the store with the certified installers and having them tell us how it's done. AND if by some weird chance the carseat just won't "fit right" in the car... we'll probably exchange it right then and there for something else. That would be sad, since I've grown quite fond of our bright red and black carseat with it's hanging bugs, not to mention we'll need to get a new stroller.

Carseats... who knew they'd be so hard. No wonder 80% of them are installed incorrectly!!

(P.S. To all the parents who read our blog... is it supposed to do that? The tilting thing??)