The Car Seat - What a torrid love affair.
The day we brought Piper home from the hospital she had her first car seat experience. It was not even in our car. Griffin's vehicle, a Ford Ranger pick-up truck, couldn't comfortably fit a car seat and two adults. He had been looking for a family friendly vehicle that wasn't a minivan and it wasn't an easy choice. So, Griffin ended up having to quickly install one into Jan's car for the trip home.
I had done a lot of research on the best car seats. Turns out Britax was highly rated all around and there was even a model that could fit into my Mini Cooper. We got one for my car, one for Griffin's future vehicle and one for Jan and Claire's car (I figured her grandparents would be driving her around on their own sometimes and wanted the best seat for Piper.) So, the day we were to go home, Griffin was out in the hospital parking lot installing the seat. Nothing like doing things last minute, I guess we were all preoccupied and didn't think about how we going to get her home.
Earlier, I had briefly looked at the instructions for installation and I knew they were complex and confusing. I am sure Griffin was in a tizzy trying to get that thing into the car properly. Turns out there are several positions for the seat: reclined, upright and somewhere in between. The excited Daddy, put the seat into the upright, rear-facing position. Rear-facing, of course, is correct for a newborn, but upright is downright incorrect.
Once we managed to escape from the hospital with our wee one in tow, Griffin buckled her into the seat. I had no idea how to even do that! (Oh, how quickly I would learn!) Piper was sitting almost totally upright hunched over like a little old man. She was blotchy, bald and toothless, and that just added to her 'old-manness'. I decided to sit next to her in the back seat as Griffin drove home. As Piper dozed in the warm sunlight, her head lolled forward. I spent the entire ride home with my hand on her forehead holding her back.
I had thought at the time how nice it was that she liked her car seat - all we would have to do was get it to fully recline. She fell asleep in just minutes, so she must be so comfy and snug. And that was true, for a while. For the next many, many weeks the car seat became the last resort to get Piper to stop crying, just as it is for so many other bleary-eyed parents. There were lots nights that Piper just wouldn't sleep where we found ourselves riding around the lake in desperation. It worked like a charm every time; until it didn't.
One night, when Piper was around two months old, the car seat failed us. It didn't lull her to sleep and she just continued to scream. When we got home from our failed attempt to calm her, she promptly fell asleep. "Strange", I thought. I didn't know the half of it.
From that point on, virtually every time we put Piper in the car seat she screamed. And screamed, and screamed. No longer the place of comfort and relaxation, the car seat became a horrid torture device for Piper and consequently, her parents too. I always sat in the backseat with Piper anyhow, and now it was a requirement. Every time we put her in the car she would scream, so I sat next to her with my head resting on her seat shushing loudly into her ear until she calmed down and usually slept.
Things continued on this way until I returned back to work. I felt so sorry for Jan when he started driving Piper to meet me for lunch each day. Jan's solution was to blast opera at Piper. I had read that loud music or even loud radio static can calm a baby in the car and, by jove, it works! When we were out Griffin would crank up the music too (only we weren't playing opera for her). Slowly, Piper's crabby car seat attitude started to turn around.
After a couple of weeks she didn't need the loud music in the car for Jan. He installed a mirror so he could see her and apparently she could see him too, and they began to have 'conversations' in the car. Piper became a chatterbox. Every day during 'lunch' Jan would report on Piper's progress. I was amazed at how her attitude was improving towards the car seat. Along with the mirror entertainment, Claire got some toys for her to fiddle with and Piper was almost always happily occupied in the car.
Griffin and I clipped some toys to the car seat in our car and she seemed happier in there too. I even ventured into the front seat on a rare occasion, but most of the time I sat in the back with Piper, just in case. Most of the time she was pretty happy and only had the occasional meltdown that forced me to make googly faces and wacko noises at her. She ate it up and would snap out of her crying pretty quickly.
As winter approached, we started dressing Piper in warmer clothing until we resorted to putting her into a full winter coat. Claire had bought the beautiful sky blue, faux fur trimmed coat for Piper and she looked gorgeous in it. Piper, however, hated it . She seemed not unlike the little brother from "A Christmas Story" who cried that he couldn't "put his arms down". Piper was so fluffy in this coat that she couldn't move her arms to play with her toys. The hood was so big that it drooped over her face and we dubbed her "Nanook of the North". She would swivel her head around trying to see. If she could speak, surely she would be shouting, "Where'd everybody go?" So, she went back to screaming in the car and no amount of shushing would calm her. It got to the point where if we had her in the coat and brought her near the car, she would scream. Joy.
We gave up on the coat. It wasn't worth the battle.
One of the things we inherited from Griffin's Aunt Ann's son and daughter-in-law was a car seat snuggily thing. It fits inside the car seat, the belts go through it and it zips up on either side sort of like a sleeping bag. The inside is a faux sheepskin and the outside is fleecy. Piper thinks it's the cat's pajamas. I put her in it and she smiles and wiggles and coos. It is the best thing ever! I now carry Piper outside in a blanket or with a jacket over her shoulders and pop her into the car seat. Piper is so warm and cozy in it that the car seat is once again a wonderful place for her to nap. She no longer needs entertainment, just a little rumbley car ride and she is out like a light.
I can only wonder what spring will bring when it is too warm for the comfy car seat sleepy sack. Perhaps we can get a real, live monkey to leash to the back seat to entertain Piper. Anything to keep the peace.
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