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Saturday, October 22, 2011

One of THOSE Weeks

So I've been MIA for a while. I'm aware. This time I have a better excuse than just being lazy.

Last week, on our way to daycare, Gavin and I got rear-ended. Hard. We were waiting for traffic to clear so that we could turn left and had been completely stopped for about 15 seconds or so. Blinker and headlights on. Brake lights working. You get the gist. Out of the blue, someone one smacked into the back of us at about 35 mph. They didn't so much as tap the brakes. There were no skid marks. I didn't hear the squeal of the brakes and was not looking in the rear view mirror so I didn't even see the car coming.

The woman that hit us was 87 years old with a heart condition. She was very upset and was sobbing through her apologies to us. Somehow, she didn't have a heart attack. She said that she never saw us. This is where I could go on a huge tangent about why she never should have been in the road in the first place. Not to mention, we live in a college town and if she had gotten on campus with all of those jay walking students....disaster.

The most imporant thing, Gavin is 100% ok. He cried a bit from the shock (who could blame him?), but once i came around to his side of the car and talked to him for a minute, he calmed right down. Just in case, the paramedics came out and the 911 operator recommended that I don't take him out of his car seat and he was extremely unhappy when 3 paramedics were triaging him while in his car seat. That was more about the strange circumstances than anything else though. Once he got out of his seat and he got a clean bill of health, he was laughing and smiling. Robert took him to the pediatrician for a more in depth check out and they said he looked great. So this is where I do go off on a tangent for my other mommy friends....

Recently the AAP changed their recommendations to keep children rear facing until age 2, however car seat manufacturers still say in their materials that children can be rear facing at age 1. Conflicting information. For a while I was excited about Gavin turning 1 because I could turn him around and he could see more and I could see him better and there would be more room in the car....etc. Out of a weird nagging feeling (and laziness) I left him rear facing...just in case. I also told myself that we probably wouldn't wait until 2 because he would get bored and that was being a little bit over the top. Needless to say, one of the first things I thought about when we got hit was "Thank God he's rear-facing". Call me crazy, that was the very first thing I thought. The paramedics backed me up on this one saying that had he been forward facing he would have suffered some neck damage. I say all this to say, I know rear-facing is a pain. I'm right there with you, but it's so worth it. Had he gotten neck damage because forward-facing was more convenient for me....the guilt alone would have killed me. So keep them rear-facing no just until their 2, but until the car seat weight limit tells you that you have to be forward-facing. You read all that? Impressive.

The damage was...interesting. She drove a 2003 Ford Focus. I drive a 2008 Mazda3. Her whole front end was crushed in. Her car was obviously totaled. So when I got out of my car and saw that damage, I thought that my damage would be equally as bad. My bumper was dented in. That's it. Seriously.

We are so so lucky. Everyone is safe and there is only property damage. I've been MIA because although it wasn't my fault, there is a whole lot of paperwork and running around and calling insurance companies and rental cars....and so much more. Hopefully it will all settle down soon...

1 comment:

Sarah @ Vol Family Life said...

I'm just now seeing this! I am so glad that you all are ok! So scary! I am definitely planning on leaving Evie rear facing as long as we can!!!