for those having #2... - Page 2

[melissakc]

I'm putting the toddler on one side and the baby on the other side. There isn't room for DD's convertible to be next to the baby's carseat, and I would definitely worry about her messing with the baby. A car crash would be terrible, but I think it is more likely that the baby would be injured by her sister bothering her or that we would get into an accident bc I was distracted by watching for this or by trying to stop it.

[kgrfcharlton]

Well, when I had my 2nd, we did the carseat at the 2 windows. Now w/the 3rd on the way. We really don't know what the heck we are going to do. We have a 2 door Honda Accord & currently there is maybe a hand-span between the 2 carseats, so squeazing a 3rd would be impossible. With no money the future doesn't look good, but I'm sure it will work out somehow (yes, it does stress me out that I am almost 34 weeks & we have no way to transport our children, so I try not to think about it).

[pixiesmommy]

But what about this- a newborn who ISN'T in a bucket seat (we're using a Britax Marathon for the baby) and a 7 yr old (Pixie) who's still tiny enough to need a booster seat???
:
We have LATCH on all 3 seats, and I do have a shoulder belt in the middle.

Pixie is pretty consistently on the side anyway, even alone. I'm not even sure, until we try to install, that her booster would fit beside of the Britax, but it most likely will since I have a larger SUV. It might be a pain to buckle though, in which case, each child would have a window seat... which is not ideal because Pixie is old enough to help calm a baby in the car or wipe spit-up, etc. and she has already expressed wanting to care for him/her while in the car. I have no reservations about them being side by side and her hurting or bothering the baby, THANK GOODNESS!

Manda

[LittleBrownDog]

Originally Posted by melissakc

I'm putting the toddler on one side and the baby on the other side. There isn't room for DD's convertible to be next to the baby's carseat, and I would definitely worry about her messing with the baby. A car crash would be terrible, but I think it is more likely that the baby would be injured by her sister bothering her or that we would get into an accident bc I was distracted by watching for this or by trying to stop it.

Exactly this.

[AKmomof2+1inNov]

Originally Posted by pixiesmommy

But what about this- a newborn who ISN'T in a bucket seat (we're using a Britax Marathon for the baby) and a 7 yr old (Pixie) who's still tiny enough to need a booster seat???
:
We have LATCH on all 3 seats, and I do have a shoulder belt in the middle.

Pixie is pretty consistently on the side anyway, even alone. I'm not even sure, until we try to install, that her booster would fit beside of the Britax, but it most likely will since I have a larger SUV. It might be a pain to buckle though, in which case, each child would have a window seat... which is not ideal because Pixie is old enough to help calm a baby in the car or wipe spit-up, etc. and she has already expressed wanting to care for him/her while in the car. I have no reservations about them being side by side and her hurting or bothering the baby, THANK GOODNESS!

Manda

If your SUV is bigger you probably won't have any problem with the booster being beside the Marathon. I had my Britax Boulevard and Regent (way bigger than a booster) side by side in my Suburban for 2 years. Ideally Pixie would go in the middle for more protection and the baby I would probably put on the side opposite of where Pixie's seatbelt buckles, just so she doesn't accidentally unbuckle it-but if your using latch even that isn't a problem. Since the Marathon sits up on a base I don't think you'll have a problem with her not being able to buckle but again, having the baby on the opposite side of the buckle would help with that.

[LittleLlama]

Rear-facing is safer than a booster. The safest of rear facing seats are the buckets, but the one in the booster would be considered the most vulnerable still.

[Momma Aimee]

Today actually we plan to move Theodores' seat and install the baby seat so he gets used to it and it in no longer NEW when the baby is in it (then ONLY the baby is new

the plan -- unless i hear this is a bad one -- Theo seat is moving to the passenger side door -- so i can still reach to hand him things rather than behind me the driver. also we canb look at easch other and i can watch him.

the baby is going in the middle

-- if there are HUGE issues then the baby will move to behind the driver. but we are hopeing Theo can learn to be nice .....

no perfect answer -- but it the best we can do.

My sis has a mini van where the TWO seats in teh 2nd row each move side to side a little -- so they have pulled them both to the middle for the two car seats (4 yo and 7 month old) -- thus it is like spliting the differnce, neither i s middle, but neither is by the door either

Also, I talked to a certified carseat tech who said the rule of thumb is to put the most vulnerable child in the middle. And believe it or not, a child in a booster is considered more vulnerable than a newborn in a rear-facing carseat. So, if you have a shoulder harness in the middle, they recommend putting that child in the middle still and the infant on the side. But, if you do not have a shoulder harness, then the child in the booster must stay on the side. Makes sense?

We have a LAP belt in the middle -- so the baby should still go there and DS ont eh side in his forward facing car seat -- not a booster -- with the latch hook and the shoulder belt?

??????

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

We have a LAP belt in the middle -- so the baby should still go there and DS ont eh side in his forward facing car seat -- not a booster -- with the latch hook and the shoulder belt?

??????

Yep, that's my understanding.

[Momma Aimee]

I will be going to the ehalth dept to get them checked before the baby arrives anyway -- but i am glad to have some clifercation -- it is all so conplex

[AKmomof2+1inNov]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

We have a LAP belt in the middle -- so the baby should still go there and DS ont eh side in his forward facing car seat -- not a booster -- with the latch hook and the shoulder belt?

??????

Are you talking about installing it with the seatbelt and then hooking that top tether over the back of the seat or using both the seatbelt and the lower anchors? The first is correct, but the second isn't.

For maximum crash protection Theo's seat should stay in the middle and the baby should go next to a window, but like I said before there is more to riding in a car than crash statistics. I have my kiddos side by side from birth and they are only 19 months apart without any serious issues-other than finding everything DS didn't want in DD's carseat! When I installed the infant seat I strapped a teddy bear in it and used that to train DS not to touch the bear. Well, train as well as you can a 18 month old.

And more general info for everyone-it you haven't researched the benefits of extended RFing I highly encourage it and could provide links. My DD was RFing until she hit 33 pounds (limit for my seat) and I wish she wasn't such a solid little girl and could still be RFing.

[Momma Aimee]

And more general info for everyone-it you haven't researched the benefits of extended RFing I highly encourage it and could provide links. My DD was RFing until she hit 33 pounds (limit for my seat) and I wish she wasn't such a solid little girl and could still be RFing.

Our INTENT was to keep Theo RF longer than his first birthday, and we did HAVE to wait for him to hit 20 pounds ... however, , we gave in to the fact he travles soooooooooooooooooooo much better forward faceing. He was a dedicated car seat hater .. SCREAMING and so on from first sight of the seat, nothing worked (tioys, music, dvd, food) .. then we flew to visit freinds after he was big enough to face forwward and just used their already installed ff seat ... and had a totally differnt little boy. sooooooooooooooo we truned him when we got home, so much for our desire to leave him RF.

AImee

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

Our INTENT was to keep Theo RF longer than his first birthday, and we did HAVE to wait for him to hit 20 pounds ... however, , we gave in to the fact he travles soooooooooooooooooooo much better forward faceing. He was a dedicated car seat hater .. SCREAMING and so on from first sight of the seat, nothing worked (tioys, music, dvd, food) .. then we flew to visit freinds after he was big enough to face forwward and just used their already installed ff seat ... and had a totally differnt little boy. sooooooooooooooo we truned him when we got home, so much for our desire to leave him RF.

AImee

You have to do whatever is safest and if your child screams the whole time they are RF, that's not safe, as it's rather distracting for the driver.

[hey_baby]

I've consulted a professional carseat safety tech regarding this issue and apparently your baby in a rear facing infant bucket goes outboard passenger and any child that is in a forward facing or booster should go in the middle since they are the least protected.

[Valerieg]

We have a minivan with captains chairs...so there is no middle seat. We're just trying to decide if we're going to put them both in the middle row or one in the back and one in the middle row so I can still have my convenient changing area (we have stow n go seating and I leave one middle row seat down). Who knows.

DD is still rear-facing since it's safer and she's only 23 lbs and 31 1/2" so it'd be easier to leave her where she is for the time being. And we rarely have anyone else in the car.

[cheeseRjedi]

Bumping this in hopes some new mamas can shed some light as to what is working for them :.

I just tried to move DD's ff Roundabout to the passenger window to put the infant seat in the middle. Rereading this thread I was thinking I should keep DD's seat in the middle and put the infant seat behind the passenger seat, but the same problems apply:

1. They don't really fit next to eachother.
2. There are only LATCH connectors for the outboard seats and only one connector per anchor is allowed. WTF?!???

So it looks like we'll have to put each carseat next to a window. Shitty.

Also, the infant seat only has LATCH connectors but nothing to tether the front of the base down. Is it supposed to be like that? It does not seem very safe. With DD we never really thought about it b/c we put the front seats far back enough to keep the infant seat in place (in the middle). But then when we got DD a Roundabout and tethered it, I felt terrible for not having her seat as secure for the whole first year of her life.

I feel like an idiot. :

[lisalulu]

Well we just had our seats installed for us a couple weeks ago at the local children's hospital by a tech and this is what they did. They put our roundabout on one side and the snugride on the other. Keep in mind our car is older and has no latch or tether. And that we have a smaller middle seat and the two seats just didn't really fit next to each other.

They wanted us to get a tether kit and have it installed for the roundabout but of course we have the one weird car that they don't make one for : But they didn't mention anything about tethering the infant seat (before they knew we couldn't get it done)? I was under the impression that they didn't get tethered-but since we don't have that option I'm probably not the best source for info on that.

[cheeseRjedi]

Yeah I just spent an hour reading my car's manual, the Roundabout manual, and the infant seat manual :. I think I'm going to go with putting both carseats next to the windows (and infant seats can't and shouldn't be tethered apparently). Strapping the carseats in with just the seatbelt never makes me feel like they are safe enough, plus the seats don't fit well next to eachother.

Now I just have to think about whether to put DD behind the driver or the passenger seat. The passenger seat seems easier b/c I'd still be able to hand her stuff, but it might make the whole getting in/out thing with two kids tougher.

[lisalulu]

Originally Posted by cheeseRjedi

Now I just have to think about whether to put DD behind the driver or the passenger seat. The passenger seat seems easier b/c I'd still be able to hand her stuff, but it might make the whole getting in/out thing with two kids tougher.

I had to think about this too. We ended up doing it with the infant seat behind the passenger only because the passenger seat had to move up one notch for the seat to fit-small car! DS had a cow that he was behind the driver-he kept saying "I can't see Mommy" but after a day he got used to it. It is hard though we do a lot of city driving/street parking and ds is getting out on the side where all the traffic is and he isn't the quickest at getting out. It seems it might be easier the other way around-(the way you are thinking of doing it)?

[cheeseRjedi]

Well, thankfully we don't do much city parking. The driver door on my car unlocks all the other doors. So since I'll probably have the babe in a sling/wrap most of the time while loading in/out of the car, I'm thinking it will be easier, in that aspect, to put DD's seat behind the driver's so I can unlock and get her in all on one side before going to the other side to put the babe in his/her seat.

And I know in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter . Right now she's behind the passenger seat so we'll try it like that for a day or two then switch it up and see what works.

[Googy]

Yep, we ended up having to put DD in her Marathon behind me and the bucket seat behind the passanger seat. I have an SUV (Hyundai Santa Fe--don't flame me for the SUV thing--we live in the woods and have to haul our own trash to the dump, drive through unplowed snow, etc.--they're a total necessity here) and still couldn't fit the bucket seat in the middle.

I'm also really bothered by the lack of tether on the infant seat. I'm having my seats checked by our police station this week (I have plenty of time since this baby is apparently never coming out)--I'll let you all know what they say about it.