jemjabella

Extended Rear-Facing Car Seats and Volvo

Motherhood is full of decisions. How to feed your baby, how to dress your baby (apparently if it wears sleepsuits during the day, you're a neglectful mother; who knew?), how to wean your baby, how to transport your baby. The last has been something of a discussion in our house over the past few weeks, as Isabel is outgrowing her first car seat (she's still within the weight range but is quite tall).

In the UK, when a baby outgrows their first car seat it's fairly normal to buy a forward facing seat and flip them 'round. However, what most car seat retailers won't tell you is that if the worst should happen and you are involved in a typical car smash, in a forward facing seat the neck is subjected to a force equivalent to 300-320kg. However, in a rear facing seat, the force on the neck is equivalent to only 50kg (source)

It doesn't take a genius to work out that less force == less chance of injury. And so for us, the search was on to find a rear-facing car seat. Unfortunately this is where most people come across a stumbling block; most mainstream retailers (Mothercare, Halfords etc) will inform you that rear-facing is unnecessary, or that there are no rear-facing seats available in the UK. Those with supposed up-to-date training aren't generally aware of the statistics concerning forward-facing deaths and are more interested in selling you the most expensive car seat in store. We in the UK don't know about extended rear-facing, so shops don't stock those car seats, so less people then know the options are there — it's a vicious cycle!

Thanks to a tip off from a friend online, we discovered that Volvo sell rear-facing car seats. It makes sense; they're a Swedish car manufacturer and in Sweden, infants are normally rear-facing until around the age of 6. The Volvo car seats are re-badged Britax, but with the handy benefit of being about £100 cheaper than we could find anywhere else.

We went to our local Volvo dealership, in Shrewsbury, and a really helpful chap called Colin gave us an estimate for 'parts' and ordered the car seat in for us to look at. In less than 24 hours the car seat was in, approved, bought and home. Fantastic, friendly service and an excellent price at around £160 inc. VAT.

The car seat itself is rock-solid sturdy and well padded; you can easily see why Volvo stock this brand, it looks as indestructible as their cars. The support leg has a handy pressure-sensitive part on the bottom which allows you to see if it's properly placed, and the tether straps to keep it tied to the front seat are included too (they're not in some online shops). Of course, the acid test... does Isabel like it? Well, she fell asleep within 10 minutes of being in it, so it's got to be good!

I Bought a Skirt

Anyone who knows me, or has been reading my blog a while, will know why the very act of buying a skirt has need of an entry of its own. To put it into perspective: the last time I wore a skirt for any significant period of time was the early 90s. So anyway, this is the skirt:

I want to wear it tomorrow so I had to shave my legs especially!

I know you wanted to know that.

That's Baroness to you, Sir!

I recently bought some boots from Barratts to give myself more ankle support when I'm carrying Isabel (I walk for miles, and my trainers/sneakers weren't doing the job). When checking out, I was asked to register, and the title field had a list a mile long with every possible title you can think of (pro-tip: just provide an empty input field).

So anyway, I turned to Karl and said "what do you reckon I should sign up as?" and he jokingly replied "Baroness". And so I did.

Friday last week, a guy turns up at the door with a parcel, eyes his PDA delivery thing (those stupid computery things you have to 'sign' these days), looks at me funny, hesitates, looks back at his PDA and then says "errr... Turner?". "Yes". And then he hands over the parcel, followed by the stupid computery thing for me to sign. I look at the screen and only then realise why he's looking a bit weird at me. Across the top of the screen:

BARONESS JEM TURNER

I've never found it so hard not to laugh in my entire life.

The Cutest Booties

Isabel has some cute little pink fabric booties that I bought from Marks and Spencers, they're perfect for keeping her socks on and feet warm while we're out and about and she's in the wrap. However, as she's growing at a rapid pace, I splurged a little recently and decided to buy Izz some new custom booties from "Jojasca".

Emma, the owner of the shop, posts at a forum that I frequent. So, I sent her a PM and enquired about a custom set of booties in girly colours that Izz could grow into slowly but would also keep her toes toasty warm now. Communication was rapid, and she started the order as soon as I'd sent payment and a foot measurement. Just a few days later — better turn around than some shops with pre-made items! — the booties were in the post...

Aren't they just adorable? :D I love love love the yellow buttons. Isabel loves the colour yellow, so it was the perfect touch. I'll be investing more in Emma's shop, especially for Autumn/Winter wear as it's such good quality, and the price was really good too.

You can see more of Emma's stuff in the Jojasca facebook group or her Folksy shop, or contact her via jojasca@yahoo.co.uk.

Spending Money

Why is it that it's only when I have no money that I can think of things to buy? Still got my eye on Windows 7, there's a bunch of stuff I want for Izz (red and white spotty leg-warmers, doidy cup etc) and several books (including Affluenza; how apt!) Still, it'll all have to wait, because this month I bought:

Virtual cookies if you can tell me what it is without cheating...