Install the car seat, and get the installation checked

Here is the one task on this list where the rule is enforced by the hospital itself: the hospital will not let you drive away without a car seat. Let's start from zero, because car seats come with more fine print than anyone expects.

What this task actually is. It looks like one errand and is really two tasks. First, install the seat by around week 36 of pregnancy. Why 36 and not the due date? Because babies keep their own schedules, and a meaningful share arrive early; week 36 gives you a buffer so an early arrival meets an already-installed seat. Second, have the installation checked, because here is the uncomfortable fact this task is built on: a large share of seats are installed incorrectly. Not because parents are careless, but because installation is genuinely fiddly: the angle, the tightness, the belt path, the harness height all have to be right, and "feels solid" is not a reliable test. An incorrectly installed seat fails at exactly the moment it exists for, which is the one sentence of consequence this task needs.

The check is free, and finding it is easy. Certified child passenger safety technicians exist precisely for this, and their inspections are free. NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency for road safety) runs an inspection finder, in the sources on this page, that locates fitting stations at fire departments, police stations, and hospitals; many do walk-ins. The visit typically works like this: a technician checks your installation, corrects what needs correcting, and, best of all, shows you how to do it yourself, which matters because you will move this seat between cars and reinstall it more times than you think.

The seat itself: three pieces of fine print. First, buy or register the seat new enough to know its history. A seat that has been through a crash can have invisible damage, which is why a used seat with an unknown past is the one baby item where secondhand thrift works against you. Second, register the seat with the manufacturer, using the card in the box or the manufacturer's website. Registration feels like junk mail bait, but it has exactly one purpose: that's how you'd hear about a recall. An unregistered seat with a recalled part is a seat nobody warns you about. Third, note the seat's expiration date on the label. Car seats expire because plastics and materials degrade; the date is printed on the seat itself, and knowing it matters for how long this seat can serve a second child or a friend.

What to do with all this. Install by around week 36, book or walk into an inspection soon after, send the registration, and note the expiration date somewhere you keep such things. Then this task is genuinely, satisfyingly done, and the drive home from the hospital runs on a seat you know is right.

Misunderstandings worth clearing up now, while they're cheap.
- "It feels tight" is not verification; a large share of installations are wrong, which is why free expert checks exist at all.
- The inspection is free, and fitting stations live at familiar places: fire departments, police stations, and hospitals, with many doing walk-ins.
- Registration is not marketing; it is the recall notification channel, and it takes two minutes.
- Expiration dates on car seats are real, printed on the label, and worth noting the day the seat arrives.
- Week 36 is the installation target because babies keep their own schedules; the seat waits patiently, the baby may not.