A victory's a victory, no matter how small.

It just occurred to me that in less than a month, Orren will be 18 months old. At that point, we will have broken even THREE times on our cloth diaper investment, AND we'll be halfway to our rear-facing goal.

Of course, we'll rear-face Orren for as long as we can, but if it's just not working out anymore when he's 3, we wouldn't feel too bad about turning him around since 3 represents a major milestone in ossification of the vertebrae. That means that if we wait until at least 3 to forward-face him, he'll face a greatly reduced risk of spinal injury or internal decapitation in a crash than if we forward-faced him sooner.

See the difference? If you can just make it to at least 3 years rear-facing, then the spinal cord is SO much more protected than before.


I think this pretty accurately describes why our minimum rear-facing goal for Orren is 3 years. I'm so happy that we're almost halfway to that.

You want to hear something hilarious? I just had to uninstall and reinstall the car seat, because I had to move Orren's straps up to the next slot. After I got the straps adjusted, and vacuumed the seat of the car, and the car seat, I set the Radian in there forward-facing just out of curiosity of what it would look like in a couple years. Funny enough, it looked weird to me. It just showed that it's all in our perspective. I've gotten so used to looking at rear-facing toddlers, mine and other people's, and HUGE rear-facing car seats like the Radian, that it will take some getting used to when it's time to turn him around. That won't be for a long time, though. We've got miles and miles of room left in this seat to rear-face, and Orren's happy that way, so we're going to keep at it until AT LEAST 3 years old, longer if it works out.

I think our reasons are justified. Spinal development is a good reason to keep rear-facing in my opinion. It doesn't matter how big or strong your baby/toddler is. Their spine is not any more developed than any other baby their age, and they face the same risk of internal decapitation and spinal injury in a crash. My son is strong as an ox, and huge for his age, but his spine is still immature because he's a baby (ok, a toddler...)

I can't believe Orren is almost a year and a half old!! Here is is on his 17 month birthday, happily rear-facing in his Radian XTSL. Look how much leg room it has. It's such a comfy seat! (And yes, per the manual, it is allowed to brace against the front seat like that, and the more upright install we do with it is also approved.)