Rebecca Boyer said the "nagging" text to her husband helped to save her son's life. (iStock)
A new mother’s “nagging” text to her husband about their infant son’s car seat likely saved his life during a car accident.
Earlier this month, Rebecca Boyer was going back to work for the first time since taking maternity leave. That same day, her husband, David, stayed with their newborn son, William.
“I demanded that my husband send me hourly updates and recaps on how baby William was handling his first day away from mommy,” Boyer recalled in a now viral Facebook post, which had 13,000 reactions and more than 30,000 shares as of Wednesday morning.
David proceeded to text Boyer a picture of William in the backseat of a car with the caption, “Little man is out. We are running errands today.” After receiving the picture, Boyer noticed the baby’s position in the car seat needed adjusting.
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“My nagging wife reply was to correct William’s position in the car seat - the straps were too loose and the chest clip was way too low. And because I know my husband, I’m sure that he laughed at me and rolled his eyes before tightening the car seat and fixing the chest clip,” Boyer wrote.
Roughly 15 minutes later, Boyer’s phone rang. Her husband's “panicked voice” was on the other end.
“‘Honey, we had a car wreck. We are fine, but the car is going to be totaled,’” Boyer recalled her husband telling her.
David told Boyer a driver pulled into oncoming traffic while trying to make a left turn — and he didn't have enough time to stop.
“He slammed on the brakes at nearly 50 miles an hour before colliding with the front passenger side door of her SUV,” she wrote.
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But thanks to her “nagging wife reply” not long before the accident, “my precious little bundle of joy was so well restrained in his car seat, THAT HE DIDN’T EVEN WAKE UP. Even with the impact of the two cars, William only received a minor jolt - so insignificant that he was able to continue on with his nap, and then spend the next two hours flirting with nurses in the Le Bonheur ED,” she wrote.
Boyer said the accident broke David’s foot in three places, dislocating some of his toes as well.
“The car is a loss, but cars can be replaced - my boys can't,” she added.
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“The car is a loss, but cars can be replaced - my boys can't."
Boyer is now using the incident as a teaching moment — reminding new parents that infants should be rear-facing in a car seat, “snuggly secured in a 5 POINT HARNESS in a car seat base that does not move more than one inch in any direction."
The car seat involved in the accident has since been replaced with a new one, Boyer added.
“I am so thankful that my husband took the extra one minute that was necessary to put William in his car seat safely. I can’t even begin to imagine how different the outcome could have been,” Boyer added. “I truly believe that the reason my family is at home sitting on the couch with a pair of crutches instead of down at the hospital is because of my annoying nagging mom voice.”