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North Carolina Babies
MrsHughesNC
member
More convertible carseat ?'s
MrsHughesNC
member
I've been putting off this research because I'm so overwhelmed, but I know it's just a matter of time until we'll have to move Holly out of the infant seat.
One question that I just can't seem to answer for myself is, will I really still be using a convertible seat for a 40-50 lb child, or will I have moved them on to a booster by then?
I don't know if the added cost of the higher weight limit (of the ones I'm looking at, anyway) is worth it. What is a 50 lb child--like a 1st grader? (I have no idea).
What was your thought process?
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Re: More convertible carseat ?'s
Unfortunately, this is one of those things you have to guess on. I'm not sure what the minimum limit on a booster seat is, but I know that the longer you leave your child in a convertible, the better. I think most people like to keep them in the convertible until they are about 4-5 years old. So you have to guess, will Holly be more than 40 lbs by then? Or taller than the height limit?
Liam's a boy, so he's likely to weigh more, and he's tall. He outgrew the height limit on his Snugride by 9 months, so we went with the bigger seat. It was worth the gamble to me. I would really, really hate to have to buy another convertible in a few years if he outgrew the smaller one before I was ready to move him to a booster seat.
GL with your decision!
Thanks! Do you have the Marathon or Roundabout? (I'm assuming marathon since you said you bought the larger one?)--I saw the "cowmooflage" in your car today, so I figured you had a Britax. hehe. :-) How does it fit in your car? We're more than likely going with the Roundabout 50, b/c carseatdata.org says the Marathons don't fit well in Camry's...We already have the seats moved up further than is comfortable for my DH when he's riding up front. But, ya gotta do what ya gotta do...
Ugh... there's just so many factors with the convertibles that you didn't have to worry about with the infant seats!
We went with the Roundabout--I just don't think Scott's going to outgrow it too soon, especially considering he's still not on the growth charts.
Also consider if you will be having more kids and how they will be spaced out age wise. Like, when Holly might be outgrowing the convertible, will you then be needing it anyway for baby #2 and have to buy another car seat anyway?
I have the Marathon. It fits fine (as you saw hehe) in our Mazda 3. I think it would be tight on the side, we'd have to run the seat up, but we put it in the middle, and it has plenty of room there. sms297 has one in her Civic, so I always figure if it can fit in there, it could fit in most any 4 door sedan. With it in the middle, we can run both our seats back as far as we need.
I bet you'd be fine with the Roundabout 50. I might have even gone for that myself if they'd been making it when we needed one. I was just really afraid the regular Roundabout wouldn't last Liam - at 13 months he's already about 24 lbs and 31".
I dont think Holly will have the problems that Alex does but yes....40 pounds is not far off in our future - we are currently pushing 28-30lbs at a year. Alex is tall and solid. He outgrew his Snugride at 5 months. With that being said we went with The First Years True Fit Car Seat:
https://www.target.com/First-Years-True-Convertible-Seat/dp/B000YBK0H8/qid=1247966884/ref=br_1_8/180-4441167-4996013?ie=UTF8&node=3579961&search-alias=&frombrowse=1&pricerange=&index=tgt-mf-mv&field-browse=3579961&rank=pmrank&rh=&page=2
I have to say I LOVE this seat. You dont have to remove the seat to adjust the strap height, you dont have to rethread to adjust the strap height, you dont have to rethread to wash the cover, and it goes to 65 pound fwd facing which was a HUGE + for my big guy.
I recently washed the cover for the first time and it was a breeze to put back on. Its hands down, the best baby purchase we have ever made.
It also got 4 stars for ease of use from the National HighwayTraffic Safety Admin. Just to compare - the Britax Roundabout & Marathon only got 3 stars. https://www.nhtsa.gov/portal/nhtsa_eou/info.jsp?type=convertible
***Baby #3: BFP Mother
We got the Marathon, and it is HUGE!!! But I talked to my sister who did all the research and has two kids and her 6 1/2 year old is still in his marathon, and her almost 3 year old also has one.
Jocelyn is in the 93% for weight and 90% for height, so for us, we needed to get the bigger one for peace of mind, that we wouldn't have to go out in 3 years and get another one. I love the features it has!! At $179 I could beat the deal.
We have ours on the passenger side, so the seat having to be moved up is an issue.. With the infant seat, it's already an issue for DH. (I'm fine in both cars, but he can't ride in the passenger seat of his car, it's pulled up so far.. and he's only 5'11"). Holly is in the 50th percentile for weight, and is 70th for height... it has fluctuated though. I don't anticipate that she'll be an especially large child though.
I've found the Roundabout 50 for $180, which is a tad cheaper than everyone else's price of $199. We're not in a super huge rush, because she still fits fine in the infant seat, it's just SO HEAVY as a carrier. She can sit up now, but I'm not sure she's ready for restaurant high chairs (or maybe I'm not!) Plus, I'm not quite ready to give up my Snap n' Go. I love that thing!
Decisions, decisions....
I am SO not ready to give up my infant carrier. Jocelyn is at 17lbs and mine only goes up to 22, plus she is not sitting up at all. I am going to have to tough it out for another month, MAX.
I can tell you one feature I love of the Marathon is that it has these little velcro tabs that the straps can stick to when you put them in so that they don't sit on the straps and you have to dig them out, the center buckle also has a huge pad around it so it can't dig into them, and it reclines nicely. It is also super soft and the cover comes off to be washed. You can also order replacement covers as well if your's get ruined.
Here is where I got mine, you can get the Marathon only in the Ashley for $179. And some styles of the Roundabout for $159.00 with free shipping and no tax. Mine arrived in 3 days!!
Edit-It looks like that site has the Roundabout 50 also at 179.99 after a 10% code.
I have the Briax Diplomat--it goes to 40lbs forward facing. I really like this seat. With this seat you don't have to take the seat apart for strap adjustment either, and it's super easy to use.
Chloe was 4 when we put her in a booster seat. She was tall, and was 38lbs. She really could have gone into one earlier due to her height and the fact she was just to big for a carseat. We plan to do the same with Keria, which is why we opted for the smaller seat. Keira is in the 90% for weight as well, but I still think this seat will fit her ok. If not, we will most likely get an Evenflo Triumph and pass the Britax on to baby #2.
We went with the Evenflo Triumph Advance and we really like it. You tighten the straps with a knob and has the same features above that toads talked about. I really like it and it's easy to use. I don't know what the big hype is with the Britax, but the Evenflo seat is $115 and just as good. And it fits in my Accord (in the center) and I don't have to have the seats all the way up.
My word of advice: keep Holly in the infant seat as long as you can. We have used the infant seat (Safeseat) up until last week (not b/c she outgrew it but b/c she was starting to look cramped). We had abandoned the use of the seat as a carrier back at 5 mos b/c it was just to heavy. But using the convertible seat is just not as convenient. Especially nice when they could fall asleep in the seat, and you just carried them into the house without waking them up!
We ended up get a portable high chair that has a back for this exact reason. He wasnt ready for the big bulky high chairs but the carrier was just TOO heavy with him in it. The back also supported him better than the ones that restaurants have. The one we got pictured below was by Safety First.
If you are sold on a Britax - you can find a few patterns in the different lines on closeout at Albeebaby.com
https://www.albeebaby.com/closeoutitems.html
We have a Britax Boulevard (kinda like the Marathon) rear facing in our Chrysler Pacifica on the passenger side. It definitely make the seat have to be way up if you install at the appropriate angle that it's supposed to be tilting (fireman put a pool noodle under it). It would make things pretty tight for my 6'2'' inch DH if he sat in the passenger seat b/c there's not a whole lot of space between my knees and the dash.
We had the Britax Diplomat (kinda like the Roundabout) rear facing in the center of my old Honda Accord. It was also a tight fit. I honestly don't think a Boulevard of Marathon would have fit. It does help to have it in the center.
My mom has a Evenflo Triump Advance rear facing in the back of her 03 Honda Accord on the driver's side and it's ok, tight fit, but she's probably about 5'6" and my Dad is also short so it works for them.
Not sure if that helps you any but that's just a run down of our seats and vehicles.
My Sweet Girls
My Sweet Girls
You've gotten a lot of good advice but here's my two pennies worth as well!
We got the Britax Diplomat b/c Maddie is on the small side, so I think we'll be ok with the 40 lb weight limit. My mom's carseat does go up to 50 lbs, so if for some reason she hits a major growth spurt and isn't ready for a booster, we can use that as a back up plan.
We chose the Diplomat over the Roundabout b/c I liked that it had side impact protection (in my car you can't put a carseat in the middle of the backseat) and the side impact padding actually helps her sleep in it a lot better. And I think I got it on Albeebaby for about the same price as a Marathon.
The Diplomat is the same size as the Roundabout, and we no longer have issues with the passenger side seat being too far forward (it had to be ALL the way forward with her Snugride). I imagine we would've had that problem with the Marathon, BUT- remember it's not forever. Once you turn her forward facing, it shouldn't be an issue, so it's just something you'll have to deal with for another 6 months-1.5 years.
My mom got one of the cheaper carseats and it is totally fine. Maddie likes it and there are definitely no questions of it's safety. I admit, I do like the extras that came with the Britax, although if I hadn't bought one I wouldn't know about them so it wouldn't matter! But I figured an extra $75 didn't matter too much since she's going to use it for the next 4-5 years.
You're welcome to check out Maddie's seat next weekend!
Thanks everyone! I'm pretty sure we're just going with the Roundabout 50. DH is tired of hearing me talk about it, and said "I thought we'd already decided....we're getting that new Britax one that goes up to 50 lbs." So, as usual, I'd made a decision and now I think I'm overanalyzing it, and we should just go with that. hehe... I really like the simplicity of the Roundabout--without all the cushion insert things, etc.. We're going to start with one, and keep the infant seat in the other car until she officially outgrows it. We'll either get a 2nd Roundabout 50 (we're pretty sure my IL's will be buying us one), or probably the Evenflo Triumph for the 2nd car.
Phew! Analysis Paralysis is exhausting. hehe.