A New View

Jillian had a new view as she rode in the car this morning. We bit the bullet yesterday, and finally turned her car seat from rear to forward facing. She has met the technical minimum requirements (at least 20 lbs and 1 year old) for almost 5 months now, but the current recommendations are to leave them rear facing as long as possible. I talked with our pediatrician back in January about this, and though she echoed the recommendations, advised us to use our common sense about making the switch. She noted that at some point, us trying to deal with Jillian's outbursts while riding rear-facing would cause an accident risk, and that the whole point is of course to avoid one. We definitely hit that mark. She was clearly uncomfortable and had grown tall enough to have to fold her legs and sit in a scrunched position. Additionally, we could not drive a mile down the road without expressions of discontent. I swear I spent most of our time in the car trying to hand her snacks, toys, etc to keep her happy. Anyway, this is just one of those times where you have to do what you feel is best (is it blatantly obvious that I was/am scared to turn her around?!).
Jillian clearly was confused by the change when I loaded her up for our trip to open gym this morning. I couldn't resist capturing her expressions of her new view. We rode about town several times today in peace as she, and her selected baby doll, Baby Gaga (Matt names the dolls around here, but that's a whole other post!) took it all in.....


I also feel a bit sad about this change because this makes her look so grown up! My baby really isn't a baby anymore. I'm not sure how I feel about that....