Car Seat Location

mrsweeber

We have a Kia Sorrento (only second row, no third row). Right now, my 14 month old is rear facing in the center. He will be 18 months old when the new baby arrives. Likely, he will still be rear facing at that time because he's pretty tiny. Question about where you would put each child? The new baby will be in a removable infant carrier with a base. Do you put one at each door and give up a third seat option? Or do you put them side by side? Which child goes in the middle? I've always heard put the least protected child in the center, but I am not sure if that's the little baby or the more open toddler!

MommyAtty

We are putting one kiddo on each side. I'm dubious about having the two right next to one another for fear that with them both facing backward the 22 month old will bug the newborn. Or try to give him toys.

AZMagnini14

I will put our newborn in the middle. Safety is my top priority. My toddler will take the seat next to him. 

bookworm982

We have one child on each side and a basket of toys in between them. The toys are all soft so that if DD decides to toss one she cannot hurt DS. We gave up on the idea of giving rides to anyone because nobody is going to fit in the tiny seat left after putting one car seat in the middle anyways, and we can secure our seats better if they aren't competing for space.

jesselayne8

One on each side. DH or I sometimes crawl in the back seat from the front to sit between them.

vettymama

jesselayne8 said:

One on each side. DH or I sometimes crawl in the back seat from the front to sit between them.

Same here.

JACKIE_RS88

We're putting the newborn in the middle and DS1 behind the passenger seat.  If I need to reach back to give him something it'll be easier to hand over to the passenger side than directly behind me.  It's a PITA with the newborn seat in the middle but we'll manage.  (I have a CRV).

chillypenguin

We put our 20 month old behind the passenger and the newborn behind the driver. We could fit them side by side, but our toddler throws things out of her car seat and they would land on the baby. I can fit in the middle if I climb in before we click the infant seat in the base.

krazyinsane

Back when we only had two we had a different car and I didn't know to keep my oldest rear facing which worked better in our car as only the middle seat had enough space for our infant bucket seat. So DD#2 was in the middle and we tried it both ways for DD#1 to be on either side of her and found we preferred the passenger side for two reasons... 1) It was easier to hand her stuff like @JackieRS_88 pointed out and 2) we park on the road so this kept her curbside for climbing in and out. 
I will tell you I found that while DD#2 was in her bucket seat the easiest option was to get DD#1 put in the car while the bucket seat was at my feet and then carry DD#2 around to the other side and put her in since she wasn't going to run off... that all changed when she moved carseats and everything else that has changed since those early days  )