*A big thank you to Cybex for partnering with me in this post.

I thought it was just me, but after asking in my Facebook group whether or not your child likes to get in their car seat I received hundreds of comments all exclaiming the same experience with a big “NO!!” I realized there must be something we can do to make getting in the car more enjoyable rather than a scream fest! Firstly because getting in the car is inevitable and secondly because it’s so common for babies to resist being restrained away from their parents at such a young age and I never wanted to encourage an adverse reaction to the car when Annabelle started becoming more alert. Annabelle’s dislike of the car/car seat started when she was around 6 months old. We put her in, buckled her up and she would wail until we sat back there with her. This led to months of Doug and I switching off sitting in the back seat and eventually she got used to it. We quickly realized that with the arrival of her sibling coming in November, that we had to break this habit and form a better experience around the car that didn’t involve an electronic or us sitting with her.

What I didn’t realize was that it all starts with getting the proper car seat. This might seem like a no brainer, but we recently switched convertible car seats to the Cybex Sirona M with SensorSafe 2.0 and were amazed at how little fussing she did. I’m not sure if it was because of how plush and comfortable the seats were or if the cup holder distracted her filled with snacks, but something finally worked! I know it sounds crazy and I thought it was just her initial reaction and she would go back to her normal self in no time, but it’s been two weeks and it seems as if her opinion of the whole car ride experience has changed. I thought I would share some tips about what we did to help ease her experience since so many of you claim to have the same one with your little ones and more about the car seat itself since I’m always getting questions about which convertible car seat I like best!

Here are some ways we encouraged Annabelle to not completely protest rides in the car as a 16 month old:

• Provide a “safe snack” as she’s getting in the car. I say “safe” because I wouldn’t give her an apple or something hard that she can choke on since I can’t get to her if driving. I know snacks shouldn’t always be the answer to everything, but sometimes it’s worth the unnecessary stress.
• Provide car safe toys. This was actually news to me until a subscriber mentioned it, but having hard toys in the car can be a hazard if you get into a car wreck because they becoming dangerous flying objects. Scary! Now I made sure to remove all hard covered books and plastic toys replacing them with soft ones.

Okay, now onto why we chose this car seat! As you guys know, we used to have a different convertible car seat for the past few months until we switched to this one. We ended up making the switch because after only using it for a few months, the latch that hooks onto the car stopped working as effectively. We traveled with it to California and had to take it in and out of Ubers/my parents car and after that short trip, it didn’t feel as safe because we were unsure if the latch was going to work after forcefully working with it for a couple of minutes every time we changed cars. It was a nightmare! We wanted a car seat that was just as reliable as it was safe and we had heard such good things about Cybex car seats that we decided to give it a try and oh man was it worth it! Doug is really into gadgets and apps, not to mention the safety of Annabelle is his #1 priority, so after researching this car seat he was actually giddy to get it in the mail to set it up.

First off, it the Sirona M SensorSafe 2.0 truly has some advanced features that I didn’t even know a car seat could even have! It comes with an OBD2 port that connects to your smartphone. Once the port is installed, your phone will receive alerts that tell you about the temperature of the car and more importantly the smart chest clip is synced with the smartphone to alert you if it is unclipped and your baby isn’t safely secured to the seat. It has a 12-position height adjustable headrest, adjustable linear side impact protection system, a removable newborn inlay, rearward installation up to 40 pounds and forward installation up to 65 pounds.

Compared with our last car seat, this one is hands down 10x better. It really seems like the high quality fabric and plush interior is more comfortable than our last, not to mention I think the overall look is very stylish to have in your car! We are still deciding on which family car we are going to get (going in between the Pathfinder/Highlander), but we know for sure this car seat will be used until she grows into her next one!