Trapped

Baby M and I have been confined to our small, stuffy, non-air conditioned house the past few days because of the California wildfires. We are lucky that we're not in the path of the fire, but with all of the smoke and particulates in the air we can't go outside or open the windows so the 2 of us sit and bake in the house as my husband goes off to his nice air conditioned office each morning. I didn't realize how much I looked forward to our daily stroll around the neighborhood with the Zooper until now. Besides the novelty of getting out of the house the stroller also lulls baby M to sleep. My other sleep inducing trick, walking around with the baby in my Kangaroo Korner adjustable pouch, is also failing because it's just too hot to be wrapped in fleece. I put him in there and after 5 minutes he is a little sweaty ball of rage. So aside from being hot and uncomfortable we are both a bit sleep deprived and cranky.

Today I worked up my courage to take baby M to a nice air conditioned mall, or at least, I figured, drive him around in a nice air conditioned car. My husband and I have taken him out several times, but I haven't taken him out in the car on my own yet. So just after 10AM I strapped baby M into his Baby Trend infant seat and then went into the garage to pull the car into the driveway and put the dog out. When I got back inside a few minutes later the baby was screaming, which is not unusual, but he was also turning a frightening shade of blue. He's grown a few inches since birth and I think the straps were too tight. After unstrapping him, calming him down and apologizing profusely for being a bad mommy I pulled out the car seat instructions to figure out how to loosen the straps. Is it just me or are car seat manuals impossible to follow? I am college educated, even graduated cum laude in engineering. I have put together an entire apartment's worth of Ikea furniture using instructions written in Swedish hieroglyphics, but I failed miserably at adjusting the straps on my car seat. Somehow the straps on the underside of the seat lengthened but the straps in the front of the seat stayed exactly the same. So baby M and I both had a good cry and then went to stick our heads in the freezer. Maybe we will try again tomorrow.

The car seat is in!

This morning my husband and I drove to the LAPD station near the corner of La Brea and Venice to have our child safety seat installed. We had considered installing it ourselves, but after reading the infant seat instructions, our Honda's owner manual and fiddling with a multitude of buttons, latches and straps we determined we needed professional help. Guess those 4 years of engineering school didn't prepare us for the complicated mechanics of car seats. Perhaps if we'd splurged on those Master's degrees...

Thankfully, LAPD has a free installation/inspection program and after a quick phone call last week we had an appointment with 2 very nice officers this morning at 8AM. They showed us how to adjust our Baby Trend Flex-Loc seat and buckle it into the center of our Honda's back seat. We asked them about installing it on one side or the other, but our reason (needing a place for the dog to sit) was deemed unsatisfactory. The officer asked us, “what's more important, the baby or the dog?” so we sheepishly agreed that the center of the backseat was the way to go. Our dog is too big to sit in the back next to the car seat, maybe she'll have to start riding up front with my husband.

I'm starting to understand why people run out and buy a giant car as soon as they have a baby. Between the car seat, stroller, diaper bag, etc., then throw transporting a dog into the mix, well, it's easy to feel a bit cramped. And we're just dealing with the infant seat here. I've seen some of those convertible car seats, which the officers informed us we'll need to upgrade to once the baby is over 22 lbs, and they are like mini Barcaloungers! I wonder if they come with tiny little cigars and brandy glasses.

I remember watching as our friends (who are a few years ahead of us on the whole kid thing) slowly replaced their compact sedans with mini-vans and scornfully asking “Why does the addition of 8 pounds of baby suddenly require 2 tons of car?” Now I at least understand the inclination. I still can't justify a mini-van or one of those obnoxious Hummers, but I do admit to eying station wagons lately.