carseats

[Crunchier]

The new baby will need a new carseat. Which ones are all of you using and how do you like it?

[ddschlr]

I used a Graco snugride. One of the best rated. It worked great. I think you can access the Consumer Reports carseat reviews by doing a google. It did not require membership.

The snugride is a rear face up to 20lbs ( I think) It is removable, snaps into base. I thought this would be nice so I didn't disturb ds when he was sleeping. I guess it depends on your babe though. DS always woke up and wanted out. The car seats the snap in are only good up to 26" or 20lbs. 26" is 50th percentile at 6 months. This carseat probably won't last you long.

I know have the Britax roundabout. It is a convertable carseat. It rear faces to 33 lbs. I wish I had just bought this type of seat to begin with. I would rather carry my babe in a sling than in a seat!

Hope this helps.

[Patchfire]

I bought an infant carseat because I remembered liking the 'fit' better for a tiny baby with that than a convertible.

At three months, we had to switch to a convertible. Ds grew quite a bit faster than his sister and much faster than we expected. We had planned to have to buy a new carseat around Christmas, not the fourth of July! So for now he's using his sister's old Roundabout. We have a Britax um... Boulevard? I think that's it on a registry at Babies R Us so that some relative will buy it for Christmas. :LOL I never would have thought I'd've said this, but he's going to need the extra height and weight to stay in the carseat as long as we want him to!

Still, I'm not sorry we got the infant carseat at first. It fit him much better for those three months.

[mbhf]

we have the cosco regal ride for both of our boys and love it. we had an infant seat for our first, and he outgrew is so quickly, we thought we would just buy a convertible seat for our second, and if he looked too tiny in it, we would buy an infant seat too. it fit him really well, and it was nice to only have to buy one seat. it rear faces up to 35 pounds, and its a really narrow seat, so it works well in a small car.

[alegna]

I used a briax companion when she was tiny and now she's in a britax wizard. Both have side impact protection which no other seats on the market do, so I was willing to pay extra. Carseats are the one thing I buy top-of-the-line. I just can't see skimping on that.

-Angela

[eleven]

We had the Graco Snugride as well. It was great because it came into the house with us, so we could get her settled in and it was warm (she's a November baby). She was one who always woke up as we took it out of the base as well.

Even though she grew out of it at 4 months, I was glad to have it.

[Crunchier]

We've been through a few seats with Ben. He just outgrew the Regal Ride, which I loved and will be putting in our tiny 2 door car. My mom bought the seat when the car was hers, but dh will be driving it work now, so that will be our backup seat. Ben is in a Graco MyCargo booster in dh's car (which will be the family car once we switch, and is slightly larger), and a Graco Ultra Cargo in my tiny car. He rides with me way more than with dh, but for gas mileage I'm keeping the tiny car for as long as I fit.

So we need one more carseat. Ben outgrew the infant seats at 4 months, and we had a convertable as well. I hated it, it was a big overhead shield Evenflo horrid thing. I hate Evenflo. We cannot afford a britax anyhow anyway. i'm thinking of a Graco ComfortSport. Does anyone have one? Will it fit in a Toyota Matrix, or something of that size?

[eilonwy]

We also use a Graco Snugride for the NewBeans, but unlike the other posters we got 7 months out of it for BeanBean and more than 10 for BooBah-- she could actually climb out of it herself before she was too tall for it. :LOL

I like the Graco ComfortSport (without the shield, which ticks me off for a number of reasons) convertible. We had one which was destroyed when I totalled our old Saturn a year and a half ago. BooBah is currently in an Evenflo Titan (the seat we bought as an emergency right after the crash) which does what it's supposed to do but I hate it, and BeanBean is in a Cosco Alpha Omega Elite, which was the only rear-facing carseat that I could afford which went up to 35 pounds. Britax is out of the question for us.

Both of my kids are still rear-facing, and (unless we have twins) will remain rear-facing until BeanBean hits 35 pounds-- he's up to 29.5.

[wannabe]

We have the britax companion. Fits to 30 inches (~ 95% @ 9 months), and has side impact protection. Heavy, but I don't lug it too far anyway.

nak, sorry

[Throkmorton]

We used a Cosco Touriva (same as the Regal Ride) because DS was out of the infant seat at 6 weeks.

[johub]

I have evenflo triumph convertible carseats for my twins and have used them since birth.
I liked them for infants because they actually look like infant seats. THey are more padded and comfier than all the other convertible seats we saw.
They also scored the highest safety rating.
THey are extremely easy to use and adjust (no rethreading straps)
We like them so much we almost bought a third.

[crysmomofthree]

I have a perego infant seat. I like the system with the click in base, but I think most infant seats come with that option. It adjusts easily from the front and it seems comfy.

I have little babies 5-6lbs so I don't like the convertibles from birth. Also with 4 kids sometimes I need to set the baby down which is hard with out a portable car seat, until they sit independently. I also think it is convenient for going out for coffee with babe, I think that is the only time I prefer her in the infant seat than the sling.

all infant seats get really heavy to carry after baby is about 10 pounds.

we have a britax marathon which I love and will be getting another. I have also used evenflo medallion, which was great at the time. and cosco champion booster seat /convertible which I give two thumbs down too.
crystal

[eilonwy]

My babies are of average weight at birth, but they're quite a bit smaller than most babies of those weights; my daughter, for example, weighed 6 lbs 13 oz at birth but we still had to add four blankets to the carseat to adjust it small enough for her. The woman who came in to do the fit check said she'd never seen a baby who weighed more than 6 pounds be so tiny.

Infant seats are difficult to carry after a baby weighs ten pounds. Here's a little-known fact-- you're not supposed to carry them by the handle once they weigh that much! Most of the instruction manuals explicitly state that infant carseat/carriers are not meant to be used as carriers once the baby weighs more than 10 pounds. If you're going to carry the seat when the baby is bigger, you have to use two hands-- one on the top and one on the bottom, or one on the handle and one on the bottom. When BeanBean was little, I carried him into and out of the house in it because it was the dead of winter and I didn't want him to get chilled, but I used to just put BooBah into a sling most of the time, rather than take the infant seat out.