Baby VS Car Seat

Wait, I thought all babies LOVED car seats. Why is she screaming!?

At first, the car seat was fine. We'd put her in, get where we needed to go, simple as that. However, as Bug got older, suddenly a five minute trip in the car became a wheel gripping nightmare! After a minute in the car seat she would start screaming bloody murder. It was pure torture. Everyone else's kid passes out in the car and sleeps peacefully. Why is mine flipping shit?

We checked to make sure the belts weren't too tight and that there wasn't anything in the seat poking at her. All good. There didn't appear to be any physical rationale for why she was freaking out. I started to notice that she was actively trying to get the buckle in her mouth. And when she couldn't- all hell would break loose. So... I started making sure she had a full belly before getting in the car and I began looping a burp cloth over the buckle so at least she could stuff that in her mouth instead. (Bug was around 2 months when this nonsense started).

These two things worked about 50% of the time, but we were still having trouble. My husband and I practically has PTSD when it came to getting in the car with her! The next solution was one of my husband's finding. (Again, sometimes Google is good for something!) Someone recommended soothing music to help calm the baby while she's in the car. He picked up a Disney Lullaby CD at his library. It was perfect. It really made a difference in our car rides. (In fact, I found that ever since then singing Baby Mine is very soothing for her). 

The #1 fix for the car seat drama? A new car seat. Bug was still in her infant carrier which was supposed to be good up to 25 pounds. Well, she wasn't anywhere near 25 pounds but she was very tall (95th percentile) and along with that... kinda weighty. She wasn't a total porker, but toting that infant carrier was becoming a chore. My husband read on a discussion board that going from the infant carrier to the convertible car seat (even though it was a little soon) helped so we headed out and bought what my dad refers to as "The Cadillac of car seats"

Sure enough, it was the final piece to our car seat solution. This car seat was SO much more comfortable than her infant carrier, it was roomy, plush and attractive. Since trading up, we haven't had a car seat melt down since. Sure, she'll still get a little fussy here and there if she's having a cranky day but there's no crying!