What I remember most when my kids were just weeks old was just listening to my wife about her day - the struggles, the small achievements, and the small things that baby did. In other words, being present when my wife needed it was really important.

We were at Childrens for over 9 hours yesterday for sustained 40C fever and non stop coughing. 9 fucking hours, we were seen at 6. Normally we would have left by 6 hours.

They did a swab as they were concerned about a 2nd covid infection. Nope, Human metopneumovirus, a relatively new discovery and they said it's similar to RSV. Not supposed to see it in June but here we are in a covid fucked up world where no one has immunity and the weather is all kinds of weird. They had to give him quad dose steroids to calm the coughing so they can get an xray in.

They said the wait was 16 hours the day before, so yay me? :badpokerface:

Ugh... that's harsh, esp on the kiddo. I'm sorry to hear that you guys had to go through this.

I hope the little person will feel better soon.

Poor kid, I hope he feels better soon. We just got back from our second trip to emerg in the past 2 weeks for allergic reactions, we were only there for 6 hours this time so I guess we got off lucky.

So yesterday we were at a friend's place, and they had a big trampoline in the back. our 2.3 year old didn't want to go near it when the big kids were on it, but when it was empty she climbed in with mom. She had fun, got out, went up and down stairs a lot because toddlers like doing that apparently, and then she got back on the trampoline because it was empty. A slightly bigger kid came in, and started to jump very lightly on the edge while our kid was in the center. Our kid fell on her face, cried, so we pulled her out, and took her in for a nap.

After that she kept being all fussy, kept wanting to be held, and said her leg hurt while pointing at her thigh. We assumed she was a bit out of her comfort zone because there were 7 other bigger kids playing, and this was one of the first backyard bbq's she's ever been to. We bring her home, she still wants to be held and doesn't want to stand. We keep checking for any signs of injury but other than her keep pointing at her thigh, there's literally nothing wrong. So we assume she maybe pulled a muscle going up and down the stairs, put her to bed.

In the morning's she's always standing in her crib waiting for us to come get her, but this morning she's lying down even though she's woken up. We keep checking, and I massage her thighs, and she says its better but still won't stand. Then mid afternoon I'm putting on her pants, and I lift the leg she's been complaining about and notice that it ever so slightly bends past her knee, and she freaks out - so now we're like, ok let's go to the ER.

We go RCH, explain what happened like 6 times, doctors come in and feel her and she doesn't cry, doesn't scream, in fact she's smiling and saying hi to everyone and is in a good mood. The doctor's are like "we honestly don't think anything is wrong and its a small musculoskeletal injury, but just because she hasn't stood in 24 hours, let's get an x-ray.

Aaand...here we are:
https://i.ibb.co/Sy1XkDV/1657507282504.jpg

~4 weeks, and we're seeing a pediatric bone doctor in a week or so.

Total of 3 hours at ER. Kids get expedited it seems.

Lessons learned: If your kid keeps saying something specific hurts, believe them. And stay away from trampolines lol.

Dang, that's quite the experience. I've never been a fan of trampolines thought they were always dangerous because of the holes on the sides and fear of kids jumping off.

I don't how I would have handled that, my kid fell right in front of me and I wasn't fast enough to catch him. So now he has a bruise on his left cheek and I completely blame myself for it. Wife's like you're an idiot lol

Fractured knee?

Lol really? How old? My just over 2 year old is covered head to toe in scrapes and bruises like he’s been in the octagon.

Small bone above the knee, forget what it's called lol.

Patella?

Yea.... I don't know I just always feel like a shit dad if I wasn't able to react fast enough.

Man that's a bit unhealthy, you can't beat yourself up over every minor thing.

I guarantee you the kid doesn't blame you for not catching him, you shouldn't either.

24 hour update with the cast - she's having fun asking us to draw on it, and I bought some stickers for her to put on when she does something good.

She started to drag her leg across the couch, and took small steps with us holding her hands.

We're also using this opportunity to graduate her into a toddler bed, because... Well because she can't climb out in the middle of the night lol.

All in all could've been much worse, but we'll see what the bone doc says.

When did folks decide to swap their car seats from rear facing to front facing? My 3 year old is on the small side (26lbs) but we're going for a road trip soon and I'm thinking of making the change so she can see a bit more of scenery but the advice I've always gotten is to make the change as late as possible.

I go as late as possible, but as long as they're within the height/weight range for forward facing it should be fine?

I find they're more likely to fall asleep rear facing though, so that might be a consideration if you're hoping they'll nap on the drive.

Always try to hit the maximums, not the minimums. Our 26mo old is about 33lbs. We run forward facing in my STi but rear in the flex. The slight design difference in the cars makes us run differently

As late as possible is the safety-based recommendation.

Potentially, I'd use kiddo seating comfort as a guide. If / When they really complain about being uncomfortable in the seat facing backwards, and you have a sufficiently long drive coming up, I think it'd make sense to turn the seat around. Recommendations were always saying that seating discomfort in a back-facing childseat is only just that, and not a safety issue.

Yes yes yes

Thank you for all the suggestions above, as a CPSAC tech I love it. Always try to max out the seats in their configuration before moving on. They're generally safer in rear facing than forward facing and their legs are supported so it's more comfortable for them.

https://thecarseatlady.com/wp-conten...-seats.003.png

Keep them rear facing as long as possible with the manufactured requirements. In an accident you rather them break their leg (rear facing) vs breaking their neck (forward facing). Unfortunately I had to put my kid forward facing earlier than expected because she kept on getting car sick and puking during longer road trips..

What parent cars do you currently have?
Traded my F150 for a 2022 Rav4 and I find that we have way too little space for our newborn.
Infant car seat takes one rear seat plus 1/4 the middle seat, and we always have the stroller in the trunk since it doesn't make sense to keep moving it around. Starting to feel way too cramped. Looking into Highlanders or RX350s but I don't know if its worth the change and gas is too crazy to go back to a truck.

Jumping in and out of cars for the past bit due to my role but honestly you won't need that much space for long.

I got out of my cx-3 into a crv thinking that would be what I'll need at first yea with the infant carrier and stroller there was limited space but after a bit he learned to walk he barely touched his stroller and we switched to a compact stroller to make things easier too.

We have a RDX and we put the car seat in the middle seat and the outboards are reasonably usable as a result - my in laws are fairly slim and could sit there for a couple hours no problem. I think the Rav4 is just slightly narrower than my RDX but the middle seat might be a good way to free up a bit of space for you.

It also depends on the seat you use. I have a Clek Foonf which is one of the slimmer seats with that design I can put my son in the middle of our CRV and still have space on the outside for adults to sit.

As was said, when they get older you need less stuff (primarily you won't need the mahoosive newborn stroller). We had an 05 Matrix which was fine with 1 but a bit tight for road trips, now we have an 07 Rav4 which has loads of room for my 4 year old and 18 month old. One compact stroller lives in the trunk, diaper bag fits in the footwell in front of the 18 month old.

kinda off topic, but having a conversation with a toddler learning to talk rear faced is so challenging.

She'll be like "mommy is sitting behind me", but then I'll be like "yes but she's also sitting in the front" and then she freaks out because mommy can only ever be behind her, never "in front". lol.

I switched the seat to front facing tonight, solely because of her leg cast. With a solid unbending leg rear facing was proving to be quite a struggle, so temporarily front face...we'll see if we can persuade her to go back once the cast comes off.

I forgot who asked, but it's a broken femur. Broke clean right above the knee, doc thinks 3 weeks should be enough. Had to go to re-buy a fucking infant bath thing so we can bathe her without getting the cast wet.

Toddler-bed training semi-failed, because after the first night of not getting out of bed, she realized she can just drag her bum leg down and around her room. She climbed out of her bed in the middle of the night, and slept on the floor in a blind spot of the baby cam. Scared the fuck out of us when we woke up and she was gone lol.

She's now asking everyone she meets to draw on her cast.

She moves around the house like this:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fa.../307_jesse.jpg