Preparing the Car for Your Newborn

Carseat and car organization for newborn

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Episode Transcript

Good morning and welcome back I’m Bev Garrison. Today, we’re going to talk about dad or birth partner’s car prep list. Quick little to do list, but I think if you do this beforehand, you will be all set to go and prepared. I think a lot of times we assume that everyone has everything prepared, ready to go and the car seat is something that we buy we purchase, but maybe we don’t think about installing it? Or getting everything ready in the car, so just a few quick things that I think can make life a little bit easier before your new one gets here.

First off just starting, depending on where you live. Depending on where you’re going to deliver. I think you should map out the best route to get to your delivery place. I would also take into consideration just different times of day and or traffic at that time in your city or where you live. With having mapping devices on our phone, sometimes this is super easy, but I think just pre-loading those addresses and routes into your phone -makes for a quick efficient way to go. Especially if you’ve gone into labor at home and things might be a little bit more stressful and we’re not thinking clearly.

So you’ve purchased the car seat. You want to go ahead and look at it and examine all the parts, make sure that you have everything put together. I do recommend getting a car seat protector, to put directly on the seat before you put the base of the infant bucket or infant car seat down. It just helps to protect that car seat from breaking down, we really are tethering that base down into the car and it can really press down hard on that leather or the fabric of the seats

and sometimes can cause some damage. Plus when kids get older, if you have that car seat protector down first, if they’re eating food and whatnot, it’s a little bit easier if things spill and are out of the car seat. So place the car protector first, then place the base -tether that read the manufacturer updates on installation of the seat. A good thing to remember is that if you ever have questions on how the seat is installed, you can in the US go to your local fire department and those guys will take a peek at it for you. It’s best to have the baby with you and actually in the car seat, but a lot of times they do free carseat checks, which makes sense -they’re the -people who are digging out when you’re in an accident. So they can be very, very helpful on installation.

You want to update any maintenance items on your vehicle. Obviously, making sure that everything’s in working order.

Install viewing mirrors. Sometimes in the car seats. there’s areas that lift up on the car seat or kind of shade the baby. Almost like a umbrella, but built onto the car seat and can’t really see. So there are these mirrors that you can attach inside your car so that you can actually view your baby. Sometimes this is helpful because when you’re looking in the rear view mirror of the car, you may not be able to see your infant. And so these mirrors can kind of allow you a quick glance.

It’s also nice to install an organizer on the back seat, something that hangs over the passenger side of the seat. You can tuck things in there: baby gear, diapers, extra wipes, formula or bottles. Things in there so that, if you’re out and about you forgot something, it’s all right there for you.

I would place a travel stroller in the back of the car or trunk.

It’s also nice to put in six or 10 bottles of water. It seems like once baby gets here, we’re a little bit frazzled. Maybe not thinking about organizing for mom or birth partner and so just having that water readily available in the car is nice. Everyone needs to stay well hydrated.

Last thing that I would say to consider getting is a sunshade. I live in Colorado, we get over 300 sunny days a year here. These are shades that you can put on the side windows that you can still see out of them as a driver, but they do shade your child and so it helps to keep them a little bit cooler. And maybe not just sitting right there in that sun and getting warm.

So hopefully my podcast today was helpful for you. Things to remember map your route. Get all the maintenance done on your car. Install the car seat. Maybe a baby gear, organizer, water, and a stroller in there and you should be set to go.

If you found the information in this podcast, helpful, you can click on the link below in the description and send me any further questions. You can also download a quick PDF with the summary of this podcast.

If you’re interested in working with me, one-on-one to coach you and your newborn from first breaths to first steps, you can also contact me through that link. Until next time, be well.

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