Life in the White House: Routines in the White House {Part 4}Transportation: Part 2

I posted before how we had our minivan setup with 4 car seats. Well, Ellie grew out of her infant car seat….it was a sad, SAD day. Fortunately, our tax return arrived just in time to purchase the new car seat.

So, I set about figuring how to have 3 car seats in the back row and 1 in the middle captain’s chair. And again, after much knuckle-ripping and head-bashing I had figured it out. Only to have it last about a week.

Yea.

See I had it all figured out, but then we discovered something: Avelyn get’s car sick any time we drive for more than 20-30 minutes, since she was in the back of the van. Since she’s the one who actually goes places with me, that are further than 30 minutes away, we had to reconfigure them again….fun right?

A few more choice words and bloodied knuckles and I had it figured out, again. I’m not keen on the boys being forward facing, despite their being well beyond the 20lbs and 30” recommendations, and a year old; however, it really was the only option given Avelyn’s propensity for vomiting in the car and that you could not fit any child over the backs of the wall of car seats in the back row. We felt ok with the decision to turn them, given that we never go anywhere…seriously…the only time the kids go more than 10 minutes in the car is for their well baby appointments. Elanor is still rear facing, due to her peanut stature and weight.

Soon after this set up was installed we discovered that now Henry, likes to vomit all over himself while in the car. Even while he is sound asleep. I really can sympathize with these kids, because frankly, being in the back seat of a van makes me want tear my hair out…l feel Iike I’m in a straight jacket and being held under water back there, just a slight panic attack, and I’m always the one driving because I get car sick.

We’ll probably stay in this configuration for a while, since I don’t see us turning Ellie before she’s 2 {the goal for every parent…I think a few states have actually mandated that now}. Of course, the boys just had another growth spurt and I will soon have to unstrap their seats in order to adjust their shoulder height. Please pray for me.

We figure we have about another 2 years in this vehicle and then we’ll be looking for another. There is seriously no room in it. Once we put the stroller in the trunk, you’re done. You can’t shove another thing back there. There is the roof, but you I’m paranoid of the clamshell flying off in the middle of the night while driving down the interstate {it’s really a good thing we don’t travel}. We know that once the kids are a bit older we will be travelling places more often, so we’ll definitely need the space.

We figure we could maybe get 1 more kid out of this car and then we’re looking at getting this bad boy….