In which we demonstrate extraordinary car seat accomplishment

I went and had our carseat installation checked at a clinic near my place of work. I found it through 800-buckl-up.org and I highly recommend that everyone who has or is expecting a child do the same. (You might have to find your own state's equivalent if you're not in WA, but in smaller towns the fire department or highway safety patrol take care of it.) No reservation necessary, the people were really nice, it was free and pretty quick, and I found out that we are in the rare 5% of people who install carseats correctly. (We have a 13-year-old car, so we don't have LATCH, but it wasn't hard to install it in the center seat using the lap belt.)

Even though we had installed the seat correctly on our own, and it seems like a simple enough proposition to read the instructions, I'm still glad I checked because now I KNOW it's installed correctly, and they also showed me how to do all of the harness adjusting for a bigger baby, answered some questions about how to make sure the baby is snug but not too snug, what kinds of supports are allowed to go in the carrier with baby. Also, I also got to practice putting a baby doll into and out of the carseat. I know we get our baby installed into the carseat at the hospital by the safety officer there, but I think hearing the instructions more than once is always good. Plus, going through it without having just gone through a major life event and using a tiny precious newborn is a lower-pressure way to figure out how the clips work. :)

We also got a sun shield, and the people were super-congratulatory about the two-mom-ness of the situation as well (I went alone before work, but they asked whether my husband was a scientist too).

Having the carseat in the car makes it so incredibly REAL that we're having a baby, somehow. Even more than the crib, it drives home the fact that in a month (or two at the most), we'll have a real life actual baby that we will be toting around to all of our errands. I was so busy beaming at the carseat when exiting the car yesterday that I forgot to bring our bags into the store and had to go back for them. I'm so excited we're ready to have this baby soon!