Silly question but what's your routine for getting in the car?

[poppymatilda]

First time parent here so apologies in advance for the silly question. I live in London so very rarely have cause to use the car.

Our daughter is 3 months old and since she was born she's only been in the car three times and cried everytime. We go everywhere on trains or buses and I find myself avoiding the car more and more because I know it's going to be a trauma.

Part of it I think is getting her in there. So my question is what's your routine for getting out of the house and into the car? I found it really faffy putting her in the pram to push her down the road to the car, making sure I had my own coat, shoes, bag etc, then transferring her from pram to car seat in the street and then collapsing pram to put in boot. By the time I'd done all of this she was properly kicking off and then the journey was miserable.

I wondered about bringing the car seat into the house but we only have street parking so not sure how I would manage to get a car seat with child in (pretty heavy) and the pram up the road to the car at once. Can I leave her alone in the car seat in the house for a few minutes whilst I pop up the road to load the pram in the car? My instincts say yes but no idea if this frowned upon!

Any tips gratefully received!

Leave pram in car.
If car seat can easily come in and out of the car, put baby in car seat at home and carry to the car with baby in.
If you find baby too heavy to do this then use a sling to get to and from the car, or just carry.
I don’t understand why you need to use the pram to get to and from the house.
If you are going out without the car, just pop and get the pram out before hand or the night before.

Buy the adapters.

Buy the adaptors. Into car seat in the house, clip onto pram, walk to car put all the bags coats etc in the car, click seat into car, buggy into boot and go.

Pram lives in car most days.
I usually gather all my things (handbag, changing bag, etc) and put them in the car. Then I go back inside and get the baby, and put baby in the car seat (we have a 0-4yrs convertible, not a capsule).
When getting out, I take out the pram, put baby in it, then load pram up with my bags.

Is your pram easy to fold and unfold?
I highly recommend steelcraft prams, they have a lot of lightweight and easy to use prams.

@poppymatilda

It is compatible with my car seat if I buy adaptors. I never bothered because given you can't leave a baby in a car seat when you're out and about
Yes you can. You can leave them longer the older they get. If i was just popping into Tesco, i'd leave her in the car seat and attach it to the pushchair.

Even though we might not go out anywhere if I don't take the pram I'll have nowhere to put her down all day. Am I missing something? What do others do to avoid taking the pram?
Play mat or blanket on the floor?? I have never taken the carry cot part of the pushchair into someones house.

get the adapters, baby is fine in car seat when it's on the pram. The adapters are invented for a reason ;-)

@TadaTralala yes but that reason doesn't support best practice which is what the OP is trying to follow.

OP do you wear baby in a sling at all?
We had a fixed car seat from birth. I would also typically keep the pram in the car. So take baby to the car in the sling, throw a hot water bottle into the seat (during the winter) whilst I loaded the baby bag, usually started the engine etc, then after 30 seconds or so, removed the hot water bottle, put baby into the seat and then off we went.

If you are worried about her being in the car seat longer than recommended, could you take a sling as well and put her in that after 45 mins or when you feel is appropriate?

Thanks everyone. Update.....
So we went to my sister in laws for lunch today.
DH was with me so I just got him to load up car with pram whilst I carried her to her car seat. We took the carrycot into her house so we could put her down for an afternoon nap whilst we all ate. Worked fine and avoided one of us having to hold her at the table.

But it gave me a chance to think about how best to do things on my own. If I was on my own I think the answer is as some of you have said to put the pram in the car the night before as sometimes I have to park quite far from the house.

I'm not comfortable with the suggestion to just take the pram wheels and clip car seat to it. If I'm going shopping for the day in Bluewater for example I don't think it's appropriate not to put her in the carry cot based on current advice. That means if I put her in the car seat in the house and push it to the car on the wheels I still have to go back to the house to get the carrycot.

I also can't really leave the pram in the car. We use it far more on foot and on public transport than in the car. So it would be really inconvenient for it not to live in the house. And also my husband takes the car to work most days so I'd often be left at home without it. That said, my friend has just given her old maclaren pushchair so I'm wondering whether that could live in the car. When are the old enough for a maclaren? Wondering if I can start her in there now...

at one stage, I was putting hte baby in a carrier to take down while I managed toddler. I think the double buggy lived in the car.

It is all a blur, and yes it was a complete faff.

would a sling help you to transport everything you need to the car?

If McLaren lies flat it will be fine now.

Get the adaptors. It will be so much easier to just push baby to the car in the car seat and then stick the car seat straight in. She won't be ready to use a normal pushchair for quite a while - I'm talking months. My son absolutely hated the car and cried every time he went in. As soon as he was forward facing the crying all stopped. I knpw the advice is to rear face as long as possible but for him facing forward was the key.