Tuesday 31 May 2011

A rainy bank holiday and a new car seat

Yesterday was the late May Bank Holiday which marked the anniversary of the start of my maternity leave last year, but otherwise was a fairly unremarkable day. Constant rain throughout the day meant our plan for a picnic had to be put on hold and as new parents we're still unsure of our options for a day out with a very small child when the weather isn't co-operating.

So I guess I should start with a quick call out to parents with small children, what do you suggest as a day out when it's raining, blowing a gale or being very cold?

Yesterday aside, we have had some excitement over the past few days, although in the first case it's excitement I could do without. I ended up needing to see the out of hours doctor as I had a serious allergic reaction to a cause unknown. An awful lot of antihistomines later and I'm on the mend, but still no wiser as to the cause and therefore unable to do anything to avoid a repeat performance. Needless to say I'm racking my brain as to the cause, but as of yet can't think of anything I did that was obviously different.

Saturday we drove to Milton Keynes to buy M's new carseat, which we really needed before she outgrew her baby seat. Admitedly we probably had a month or two left before she was in desperate need of a replacement, but it's really not something I wanted to leave until the last moment.

After doing the usual rounds in terms of research I decided I wanted to keep M rear-facing as long as possible, or at least until she's about four which presented a problem since Group 1 carseats on the highstreet seemed to all be forward facing.

The internet came to my rescue and so Saturday found us visiting the In Car Safety Centre which is a specialist carseat place which I found via Child Car Seats and Rear Facing. After spending nearly two hours there, over an hour of which involved trying out carseats in my car and persuading a reluctant M to help check fit we finally settled on a seat that fit the car, fit M and had plenty of growing room in it.

This is a surprisingly tear free M in her new carseat after the drive back to Coventry.



I say tear free because M is a bad traveller; whereas most parents tell me their babies/children enjoy being in a car, M never has. I do what I can to make journeys tolerable for her, providing distractions and breaking up long journeys as much as possible, but my little girl just wasn't born to roam.

The surprise hit of the journey home wasn't the new laptray toy we bought her while we were there, but mirror baby (in the mirror I bought so I can keep an eye on M whilst I drive) who she happily pulled faces at the whole time. Fingers crossed the novelty doesn't wear off and not being cramped in her baby seat will make travelling in the car a little easier on M.

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