Rookie Carseat Question

[m0dernist]

Mammas - I feel so stupid :

So, there are infant seats with the base you can use - and some convertible carseats are rated for 5-30lbs rear-facing. Am I naive to think that one of the convertible seats will work from the beginning? We are planning on babywearing - so it would be one less excuse to keep them in some other traveling device (i.e. carseat). For some reason though I feel like I am being completely unrealistic.

I think that pregnancy has inhibited my brain beyond use.

[2cutiekitties]

From all that I have read lots of people started out with convertible seats and are happy with their choice.

I bought an infant seat. This is my first, and I dont know what they heck I want, so I thought that would give me more options. I hate that you need the baby to figure out what fits your bill of needs and his wants, but you cant bring baby home without one. :

[ibusymomto5]

I think it just depends on your lifestyle as to which will work best. For us, I couldn't stand not having the infant seat. We use ours for close to a year, so it's well worth it to me. I like to babywear around the house and occasionally when we go places, but we also use the stroller quite a bit or like to carry the baby in the infant seat especially if they're the type that get lulled to sleep in the car like most of mine have. We have the type stroller where you can just transfer the car seat to the stroller, so the baby doesn't even wake up. I also like the infant seat to take in church, once again, because baby often stays asleep. That's just us, though. I can't imagine using the convertible from the beginning, but that's our lifestyle.

[LEAW]

Having a winter baby, I love having the infant seat to bring in the house overnight... I can't imagine only being 8 lbs and put into a freezing cold seat (no snowsuits or buntings on babies in seats please!).

That being said, we often left the seat in the car to run errands or go to meetings, church, shopping, etc. and used a sling.

We moved dd to a convertable at 3+ months, and I LOVE using it too.

Most babies don't fit properly in a convertable at 5-10 lbs... the straps are too high, the head pillow isn't right (or they have no head pillow), the buckle comes too high on the belly, the hips of the seat are way too wide, etc. and adding aftermarket pillows is another big no-no for safe carseat use.

We'll use dd's infant seat for this baby, adn then buy a convertable in the spring.

[phillychiquita]

We know lots of folks who did the convertible seat (the Britax Decathalons or Roundabouts) from infancy and the baby fit in just fine. So that's what we are planning on too -- but i agree, it depends on your lifestyle. For me, I plan to babywear, and I live in a city so I already dont use the car very often, so an infant seat would hardly get used before it would be time to upgrade, so we are just going with the convertible seat from the very beginning...plus its one less thing to buy and/or store!

[beaner&tiegs]

I babywear a lot, but I actually love having the infant seat. When the baby is sleeping, it makes it MUCH easier to transfer into the house and have the baby keep sleeping. I also use the carseat in the bathroom when I want to have a shower (eliminating the need for more gear, like babyseats or moses baskets) and it also makes it easier for me to plop a sleeping infant up higher on a counter or table when sleeping to keep the older siblings out of his/her face. We end up using it for at least 6 months, and I also find it easier to nurse the baby in the car with the infant seat when DH is driving! Just a few thoughts....good luck with the decision!

[Kelleybug]

We also use an infant seat, at least for the first 6 months. I also babywear most of the time, however there are times when the baby is asleep and I don't want to wake baby just to run into the store quickly or bring him/her in the house. It is also cold in the winter where I live. I don't like putting newborns into cold carseats. I just like having the option to let the baby sleep...

[timneh_mom]

My son was born in November and this one will be a cold weather baby as well - personally I LOVED being able to take the carrier into the house and not have to stick him in a cold car seat! He HATED the sling or any other type of front pack and was totally content to use the carrier as a seat when we'd shop, go out to dinner, etc. He never did sleep long in it though, as soon as the car stopped, he was awake. He outgrew it quickly (by 5 months we needed a convertible) but we would still use it as a seat for him for shopping or whatever because he wasn't sitting up well on his own yet at that point.

It came as part of a "travel system", with a stroller - and that was great because like I said, he would scream in the sling but liked to sit in the seat and look all around!

I just wanted to add, that my son is now 26 months old and still uses the convertible - we got a Britax Roundabout and it still fits him. We figure, at the rate he is growing (he's always been tall), he will outgrow the Roundabout just about when the new baby might outgrow the carrier. We'll still need another seat for DH's car! We figure we'll have a mountain of them by the time we're done with them!

[thepeach80]

Some work great, some don't. The one I have pics of that have worked for Ilana are the Cosco Scenera and the Sunshine Kids Radian65. The Britax seats didn't work at all. She was 7#2oz and 20" at birth and not much bigger now at 2 mos. She's in a Graco Safeseat for her normal seat.

[Meems]

I've also been really torn/ confused about what to do about the infant car seat. I did a lot of reading, asking questions, researching, etc., and I ended up getting a Graco Snugride yesterday b/c from what people have told me, the convertibles don't fit a small (er) baby (not that I might not have a 9#er!) but I didn't want to take the chance of my baby not fitting into the carseat leaving the hospital, which is 2.5 hrs away from our house. Also, it appears from comparing the convertibles and infants in the store, I can see how BIG the convertibles are compared to the infants. I had planned originally to get a Companion, but then the CR thing came out and I figured that for $100 less, I'd get the Snugride, use it for a few months, and then move up to the Boulevard or Marathon (they are SO much nicer and appear better made than the Graco's BTW) when the babe is bigger. Finally, it is winter (although it's 70 degrees here today!) and I like the idea of just snapping the baby into a warm carseat or not waking it up for a short trip into the post office or grocery...

[Gray's Mommy]

We use both types of carseats. I liked the infant carrier since our son was really small for full term (5-11) and he fit in it nicely. The convertible one was way too big for him at birth. I also like the fact that if you have your baby in an infant seat, no one tries to take them out For some reason the straps were like a barrier for some people. The minute I was carrying or slinging, they were all over him like parranahs