Lela aced her first test

Yesterday, I made Babak install the car seat and then drive to Rockville at 8:30 in the morning to have the seat inspected by the fire department. Now, Babak and many others scoffed at my insistence that we have the seat inspected because, honestly, Babak is pretty capable and should be able to install the seat just fine by himself. But, I read that something like 90% of all infant seats are installed incorrectly and I'm paranoid, and the inspection is free, and my baby is delicate enough as it is without the added risk of strapping her into a rickety death trap each time she rides in the car, so Babak caved to my pleas without too much hesitation. And it's a good thing, too. Apparently, we had about 6 things wrong with the way we installed the seat INCLUDING the fact that our carseat wasn't even apropriate for a baby under 5 pounds! Fortunately, the fire department car seat program has some seats available for rentals, so we got an acceptable infant seat for $1 per day and they installed it correctly in our car. It turns out that they are much harder to install than you would think - it takes herculean strength to get the seat belt tight enough, and that damn LATCH system that all new cars are required to have does not work if you want to have the car seat installed in the middle seat!

Now that we have a properly installed and ergonomically correct car seat for our tiny baby, Lela had to pass the hospital's car seat test. Basically, we strap her in the car seat and monitor her for 45 minutes to make sure she doesn't choke or stop breathing or drop her heart rate, etc. The preemies are so small that they slump in the car seats and that slumpy posture can either cut off air flow or can stress the babies to the point of medical distress, so the hospital likes to confirm that the baby can handle a car seat before it will release them.

And (drumroll please).......Lela passed with flying colors! She's too small for the car seat's straps, even at the tightest setting, and she had to be propped up with rolled receiving blankets on either side of her body but she tolerated the seat well. She didn't seem to enjoy it, but she kept breathing which is the important thing.

This is one of the last tests she has to pass before discharge. Now it is up to the doctors to determine when she can go home. I think the only thing that may hold her back is the fact that she's not gaining much weight. She's only 3 lbs, 11.5 oz - a mere ounce and a half above her birth weight. This morning, they decided to let her feed "at will" - so we started giving her almost twice the amount of milk she was previously eating in a sitting and we feed her until she seems to be full. So far, the little piglet has been loving her fuller bottles. Hopefully, she starts packing on the pounds, er, grams quickly!