An add on question to the SUV thread below for moms of 2+

djm31012

If you have an SUV with a 3rd row, is your middle row captains chairs and if so how important do you think that is? With LO2 coming in May, I am envisioning longer car trips (DH's family is 2 hrs away and we have a beach house about 1.5 hrs away) and me having to climb in the back seat.  We love the pathfinder but there are no captains chair option for the middle row and I can picture myself trying to calm a screaming baby reaching over the high back of the middle row and it being annoying. Am I over thinking this?? Clearly I am overwhelmed at planning for this second child HA.

djm31012

Oh I am putting them in the middle row...I meant me sitting in the back row and reaching over the back of the 2nd row. How confusing is that?? In theory it probably wont happen that often...but I am just wondering how inconvenient that would be.  The middle row of the pathfinder does fold all the way forward even with a car seat in it, so getting in from the beginning isnt an issue, I am more thinking if I need to tend to the baby mid car ride.

fignewt74

Actually, wouldn't the middle row allow you to sit next to the baby?  You in the middle and one LO on each side?

djm31012

fignewt74 said:

Actually, wouldn't the middle row allow you to sit next to the baby?  You in the middle and one LO on each side?

We tried..its tight...for a 10-15 min trip (or I guess to give a quick bottle) its fine. But I cant sit like that for an hour and a half.

nlp1990

We have a Honda Pilot with a solid middle seat. I actually fit pretty well between two car seats. DH's family is about 4.5 hours away and I can comfortably fit between the seats.

djm31012

byebyebooze said:

I'm confused. Why not just sit in the front? Turn around and reach through the gap in the front seats to the kids in the middle. We do that with DD and always have. It's never been an issue and I can't imagine it will be when there are two of them.


BEcause when DS was a newborn he did not do well in the car at all on long trips...reaching back constantly trying to tend to him when I couldnt see him was annoying and uncomfortable. I want the option of being able to sit back there with him while hes backward facing and unable to reach back and take things from me etc. Glad it works for you though thats great!

wifeofadam

I have a Suburban.  The middle row is a bench, but the two outside seats can be folded down for entry to the back.  We keep one folded down at all times. 

We actually chose the Suburban because it didn't have captain chairs.  With so many carseats, it can be cramped in the rows, so it's nice to have an extra seat here and there.  Plus, we don't know if we will have more than four, so we wanted to have the option to grow with the car.  And to carpool with people outside of our family.

downtown80

nlp1990 said:

We have a Honda Pilot with a solid middle seat. I actually fit pretty well between two car seats. DH's family is about 4.5 hours away and I can comfortably fit between the seats.

Same here. We have out 2 kids in the middle row both by the windows. When we have traveled, if I ever need to sit with them, I fit fine in between them too. Granted I don't enjoy sitting there for comfort alone, but that isn't why you'd be sitting there anyway! I've been able to feed babies, play games, talk, etc and not feel cramped.

I don't think captains seats would be better in my opinion.

tamarar5

I have the mini van and on our last trip to Wisconsin for my aunt's funeral, dh sat in the way back with DD1, and both babies were in the middle captain chairs. The only reason that was even remotely tolerable was because my dad was in the car for me to talk to someone.

Also, just a note for someone who had two rf babies in the captains' chairs, no adult can climb in the back seat behind the babies. Dh had to either snake his way through either the front seat or climb in from the tailgate.

djm31012

DC2London said:

We have a minivan but I spent most of a 10 hour journey in the third row trying to comfort Rhys when he was about 5 months old. They were in captain's chairs and it was fine.  I actually sat behind Jack so I had the kitty-corner angle to Rhys.  It was perfect.

This is what I was thinking. Captains chairs probably better for this type of scenario.

draeray

Captians chair makes all the difference. We have a removable middle seat in our van making it a bench or a captains chair set up.

tamarar5

DC2London said:

We have a minivan but I spent most of a 10 hour journey in the third row trying to comfort Rhys when he was about 5 months old. They were in captain's chairs and it was fine.  I actually sat behind Jack so I had the kitty-corner angle to Rhys.  It was perfect.

I should clarify my previous response.  From a baby standpoint, it was awesome having DH back there to handle babies as much as he could.

From a driving standpoint, I would have gone out of my mind being in the car for 10 hours with no one to talk to.  Thank GOD my Dad was along to keep me sane.