Even though, legally, we could have turned her around once she passed the 20 lb. and one-year marks, one look at videos like this one was enough to convince us that she was much safer rear-facing!
So many people have asked us over the past year or two, "Why don't you turn her around? Aren't her legs uncomfortable, being folded like that?" Our response has always been that she hasn't complained, and if we ever got in an accident, we'd rather risk her little legs getting hurt than risk the kind of neck and back injuries that happen to forward-facing kids. Extended rear-facing is now being recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and practically everyone else in the Experts on Keeping Kids Alive category, so that was good enough for us! (Click here for a website with great info on extended rear facing.)
Now that Ellie's getting close to the rear-facing weight maximum for her car seat, and it was getting really difficult to cram her into her seat (plus, the person in the front passenger seat has to sit all the way forward when her seat's turned around behind it, so there's an airbag face-punch waiting to happen!), we went ahead and turned her around, although there's a part of me that would like to figure out a way for ALL of us to sit rear-facing, considering how much safer it is! (Except the driver. That wouldn't be very safe.)
Ellie was so excited to see her seat turned around like Sissy's, and for the first few times we got into the car after the switch, she'd exclaim, "It's still facing forward!!" as if she'd expected us to turn it back around during the night!
A less thrilling part of this whole "growing up" thing is that she's abandoned naps--she simply will not go to sleep. She'll sit on her bed and look at books...she'll sing...she'll wander around the house...she'll cry and beg us to let her get up...but no actual naps have happened in probably a month or so. We've given up trying.
Unfortunately, she still needs naps. We know this because by evening time, she looks like this:
But, since you can't force a kid to sleep (not without highly questionable misuse of medication, at least), there isn't much we can do except put her to bed a little earlier at night. Thank goodness for the sun going down earlier in the fall!
LOL! Great blog post, and such cute pictures! Yay, Elles! She says the cutest things. What a couple of precious kids! <3
ReplyDeleteEllie still needs a nap, but she is so cute and able to talk grandma out of everything.
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