When will she be 22 lbs?

November 23, 2012

We had a car seat conundrum to solve.  The new infant car seat off my registry was purchased before a toddler-mom friend of mine gave me her whole car seat system.  That became lent me the car seat system when she found out around the time Lily was born that she was pregnant again with her third baby.  She had a beautiful baby boy this past May.  In deciding whether or not to open the new infant car seat or sell it and buy a convertible car seat, I kept asking the question: When will Lily be 22 lbs?

Months go by, and I don't have an answer.  Come on, Google!  You are often psychic when I don't quite search for the right thing. 

In February, two of the 5 months old boys in our play group were 16 lbs.  Gaining about a pound a month, that might mean they would be 22 lbs in August 2013, maybe?  Lily was about 12 lbs at that point. I didn't think Lily would be 22 lbs in August, so I decided to just finally open the box on the new infant car seat instead of trading it in for a convertible car seat.  Ugh, the silly, new car seat was a pain in the ass.  The clasps are plastic, instead of metal.  It gets all twisty, the handle is finicky, and the base locks in differently.  I feel like I have to put pressure on funny places to get it to lock properly.  Mommies try to just get out the door cannot deal with figuring out new stuff.  Oh holy hell if my socks are not in the right drawer.

Lily just reached 16 lbs at 8 months in June.  In checking the clinical growth charts, she's been steady in the 10th percentile, but she's been creeping.  This put her in the 20th percentile.   Ah-ha!  Let's look at the damn growth chart to answer our question.

Answer: If she stays in the 20th percentile, she would reach 22 lbs at around 18 months (Aprilish 2014).   Duh, Mommy.  So, our infant car seat might be good for almost another year.  This provided her legs don't majorly start to hang off  the car seat (which is most likely to happen sooner anyway, since she was born into an amazon-type family). 

Mommy win.  Keeping the new infant car seat turned out to be a good decision, because I read some article about how infant car seats provide more protection for babies.  Silly internet.  And, now that we're used to the new car seat, it's not nearly as much of a pain in the ass as it was.  I even prefer the plastic clasps now, because they don't get hot in the sun like I can imagine metal ones would.