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I am always afraid I'm doing her car seat wrong. Glad you figured it out before it ever was a problem.

I have a friend who once, in the early sleep deprived days, put her sleeping baby down in the car seat while she was out, covered him with a blanket, and forgot she hadn't strapped him in when she got to her car. She didn't realize until she got home that he was completely unbuckled the whole time. Luckily nothing happened but she was so horrified.

@Foodnerd81: something like that happened to me except I can't even blame sleep deprivation. I had undone the bottom part and totally forgot about it!!

@Foodnerd81: pretty much the same thing happened to us. We were at a wedding and she finalllly fell asleep in her infant seat and we put a blanket over her since it was a little chilly and we were outside. Well we got distracted saying goodbyes and working our way out of there and just popped her in the car UNBUCKLED. We drove the 45 mins home, mostly on the freeway, and realized it when we were about a block away from home. It's hard not to beat yourself up about stuff like that but everyone makes mistakes.

@Purpledaisy: I've done this TWICE. So now I'm extra-vigilant.

I've done the driving while she's unbuckled thing, for the same reasons listed above (blanket over sleeping baby). For me the most horrific was when we were driving the 7 hours to LA and switched LO back into her bucket seat for the trip. At the beginning of the trip, DH had buckled LO into her seat, but forgot to strap the carseat in. He'd become so used to the convertible seat. When we stopped, I saw it and reminded him that it wasn't right and wasn't safe. Later he wasn't thinking and put LO in her carseat and put the seatbelt over the carseat, forgetting to buckle her in. In his defense it was super late, but I double checked him the rest of that trip because I was so paranoid.

For the first 6 months we latched J's car seat in the middle of my car. When we got his convertible seat I checked the manual and found that my car doesn't allow sharing with the latch handles and you can only latch on the sides. WHOOPS

@Bookish: I know! With just the LATCH I feels like it's going to tip up and with just the belt it just doesn't feel secure at all. I chose the LATCH.

Why aren't car seats easier?? We are all smart, careful people and we still screw up. Seems like it shouldn't take half an hour if reading a manual to get it right.

@shopaholic: we put the straps on like that for the first 2+ months. That's how the nurse had us do it at the hospital! As LO got bigger it got so much harder getting her legs through the straps and I googled it...whoops.

@JessKas: same! @shopaholic that is how the nurse told DH to do it at the hospital, and then he was in charge of the car seat for a few weeks while I was still really out of it. I said "gee that looks funny" but he reassured me.. until LO was a month and I looked at the manual. You're not alone!

Reading this thread has made me feel a little better as we also made the mistake of not remembering to check LO's buckles when putting him back in the car. We drove home 45 minutes and didn't realize we never buckled him back in until we were literally down our street. Major mom guilt after that one.

The only reason I know how to do it is because I have babysat so many nieces and nephews. Even then, I am super anal about reading and re-reading installation manuals.

@shopaholic: Awww she is so cute! Look at the sweet outfit. That does look comfier than the corrected way. LOL

@NurseMommy: @wheres_c: @MamaJ: @MaisyMay: @littlecasita1122: @lemondrop: It makes me feel way better knowing that so many others have forgotten to buckle in their baby! It's such an easy mistake to make!

@shopaholic: I'm sure the correct way does look more uncomfortable, but imagine if you were in an accident...with her legs out like that, almost all of her body weight would be brought to a stop by her neck/chest! Ouch!

I have totally done the thing where I forgot to strap LO into his infant car seat. Twice, actually - obviously I felt way more stupid and horrified with myself the second time! Same situation many people mentioned - had him strapped in but we were out somewhere so I undid the buckles so he'd be more comfy and covered him with a blanket, then forgot to re-do the buckles/straps when we put the carseat back in the base!

And like @rachiecakes and @Bookish, my DH thought it was more secure to use latch and the seatbelt, when it's actually worse and makes the seat not as effective. I was clueless at the time, was dealing with enough and told him that the car seat install was up to him. Luckily for us our hospital had a certified technician who helped DH re-install the seat properly and went over everything with him.