I've recently become obsessed with the question of cars.
Specifically: Do I need a new one?
Background: I drive a wonderful Honda Civic. It's my first car, and I've always thought I would drive it right into the ground. I'm tall. My husband is taller. Rear-facing infant car seats are not small. Double strollers really don't fold up into nice, tiny contraptions. I want a dog. I might want another kid. My kids might have friends, who won't be able to ride in the front seat until they're, what, 10? I should probably have four-wheel drive, considering that last winter (and every Utah winter...) I called in sick to work at least once since I couldn't make it up our un-plowed residential road.
My step-dad drives a Subaru Forrester, my doctorsister a CR-V. So maybe I could copycat and go for more trunk room, at least? Or go balls-out and get a minivan?
This is a very practical concern, and one that requires a lot of thought. My husband (who drives a Ford Fusion, but won't be the primary kid-driver, and doesn't particularly want to switch with me, at all), is one board with whatever.
So hooray, it's all up to me! How much can we spend, would I get for my car, would it be worth it, etc.
But I kinda think I'm making this up so I don't have to deal with the true reality: I haven't bought a damn thing for these babies. At some point, I'll need to kick my ass into gear, and get the essentials: car seats, cribs (I wanted to co-sleep, but I don't think that's feasible with two babies in our queen bed, with a very restless-sleeping Daddy...), a breast pump or bottles or some sort of feed-babies device, and probably some onesies, at least a million since they'll probably puke all over them, taking after their mom and all.
It seems so much easier to say: well, we need to figure out the car thing first, rather than...well, I can't emotionally afford to buy stuff for babies who may not ever get to use it.
God damn infertility. God damn miscarriages. They ruin everything.
7 comments:
Honda Odyssey!! I just got one and I LOVE IT! I am thinking ahead and I love the extra room (they seat SEVEN) for groceries and house stuff in the meantime until I can put a baby or two in the seats! Small steps with baby stuff, maybe pick up a pack of onesies and see how that feels? You do still have time, I know tons of girls who didn't do anything until viability (which is what I am gonna do!) HUGS!!!
Yup, they do ruin everything! When we thought we were having twins, my friend's sister who has twin boys immediately asked me if I was going to get a bigger car. She said they didnt even think about it till the last minute, but theres no way twin strollers and all things twins would fit into a sedan. So we we're freaking out that we now had another expense thrown into the mix. Then sadly, that was all figured out for us. How about a Honda Pilot?
My husband has raised the "with twins, we'll need a bigger car" discussion with me, too. (I drive a Toyota Prius, and he drives a Volkswagen Jetta.) I categorically reject the mini-van, but you gotta do what works for you.
I'm sorry that you don't feel emotionally ready to buy things for your babies. That must be tough.
Sigh. decisions, decisions.
We just installed our infant seat (one of the really large models that takes babies to a year even if they are larger than average) and convertible toddler seat (one of the ones that goes from 5-65 lbs) in our Honda Civic. It's a mid-90s one so it is even smaller than the slightly later models.
It's going to work fine for us as a family with two kids, only exception that the enormous jogging stroller that I want won't fit in the trunk -- so we'll get a smaller crappier, more compact stroller secondhand for taking in the car, which is fine with me, since I don't routinely drive the car places to go running there anyway.
We'll probably make the transition to a minivan when we have a third. I do think we actually could get a third carseat back there (Sunshine Radian - has a super-slim profile!) but it would start being hard to get the middle kid in and out, and not have any space for a bag. I guess we really could keep the Civic and be a family of three kids. It's only the addition of a fourth child that would throw us into definitely NEEDING a minivan.
I'm pretty sure we could still pile our entire family onto my awesome workhorse of an Indian Vespa clone, though, regardless of how big it gets. Not for infants, though. :)
I hope your ability to prepare for the babies improves over the next two months as you have your anatomy scan and hit formal viability.
I hope you can make the car decision and it slowly makes it's easier for you to start making baby purchases. xx
We're having twins in Feb but fortunately I already own a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. Now I can justify having such a big car with two car seats and a stroller in it. But, now, where will my two 50 lb pooches go?
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