Adjusting to the Hippo Car Seat

Much happier in her Britax Hippo car seat

Well, I am happy to report that the days of loathing her Britax Hippo car seat are gone. Addison has become more and more accustomed to the car seat to the point where she now enjoys great naps in it on longer journeys (yay!). In hindsight I realize that it was probably her incisions that bothered her in those early days, not the car seat!

We found that tethering toys to her car seat helps her pass the time happily

One unfortunate thing about the Hippo car seat is that it does not have any place to attach car toys to...so we have used teething rings to tether toys to the Hippo seat for Addie to play with during car rides. We also bring along a few stuffed toys for her to play with in her seat and have installed a mirror that allows both her to look at herself (something that always brings a smile to her little face) and also allows us to keep an eye on her in the backseat!

We have had to customize the seat to allow Addie to fit. We have padded the back with memory foam and added a head rest for her to make it a little more snuggly.

The seat was loaned to us by the Stollery Children's Hospital, where Addison had her closed reduction, and it seems to me that it is meant for a larger child as we have had to pad the back of it with memory foam in order to position Addie far enough forward to sit properly in this car seat. We are very thankful to the hospital for loaning it to us, because we had no idea what we were going to do for a carseat for the duration of her spica-dom!

Playing away with her tethered toys

On particularly long car-rides one of us will sit in the back of the car with her as she has a tendency to lose her toys and get bored. With mom or dad beside her, she generally plays for a little while and then is able to easily fall asleep in the car seat (which is great news for her mom and dad who are no longer arriving at destinations with a tired and cranky baby!).

Now that we are 7 weeks into the spica cast and have a date set for follow up with her surgeon in mid-September...I am beginning to wonder what the next evolution of car seat will be? I am pretty sure she won't fit in her bucket seat we bought to use with her as a newborn...or maybe she will? I have heard lots of stories about babies who are quite sore following cast removal which makes me wonder if I will need a bigger car seat...and then there is the brace that she will be placed in following the cast removal which will keep her just as splayed out as in the cast. It might be time to start investigating new car seats!