@laurendiaz02 I also elected not to buy the infant car seat. I'm glad to see that a few people have said it's manageable, because it seems much easier to me to put the baby in a sling than to haul around the carseat. Plus, I keep telling myself, if we're really miserable without it then we can always get one quickly from Amazon.
We would have done the all in one car seat but in our state it is required to have an infant carrier for some reason.
Never heard of this. What state are you in? I'm in California.
Connecticut. Even the staff at our baby store said, make sure you get and infant carrier cause CT law requires it. I worked out fine for us cause we got both the travel system and convertible seat at the shower.
@laurendiaz02 I also elected not to buy the infant car seat. I'm glad to see that a few people have said it's manageable, because it seems much easier to me to put the baby in a sling than to haul around the carseat. Plus, I keep telling myself, if we're really miserable without it then we can always get one quickly from Amazon.
We would have done the all in one car seat but in our state it is required to have an infant carrier for some reason.
An infant seat is not required in any state. They all either say baby must be rear facing until at least 1 and 20 lbs, until age 2, or are proper use states which means that your child needs to be within the height/weight requirements for the way you are using the seat.
@laurendiaz02 I also elected not to buy the infant car seat. I'm glad to see that a few people have said it's manageable, because it seems much easier to me to put the baby in a sling than to haul around the carseat. Plus, I keep telling myself, if we're really miserable without it then we can always get one quickly from Amazon.
We would have done the all in one car seat but in our state it is required to have an infant carrier for some reason.
An infant seat is not required in any state. They all either say baby must be rear facing until at least 1 and 20 lbs, until age 2, or are proper use states which means that your child needs to be within the height/weight requirements for the way you are using the seat.
It's just what I was told by the midwives, people at the store, and my cop FIL. Not a big deal to me but I haven't seen the statute in writing.
Eta: I just looked it up and it looks like the law was written before they made the converabke seats able to accommodate infants under 20 lbs cause the law basically says to have them in a rear facing infant seat until either one year old or they reach 20 lbs then transfer then to the converable. But now I see seats on the market that are rare facing with an infant head support attachment. Maybe the law hasn't caught up with technology.
@adiaz132003 That's so odd. I was actually getting paranoid about being able to leave the hospital after seeing several people post about having to bring the infant seat in so they can see that you have it, so I made sure to double check at my last appointment that they would let us carry the baby out and put him in the carseat in the car.
Yeah my midwife said that they wanna see the seat before we go. They don't check the installation but they make sure you have the right seat.
At my hospital, if you don't have a seat, they'll give you one for free (it's very basic but works!). You could look into that just to please them?
We had to do a car seat test with my first to get him discharged from the NICU (buckle him in in the room with monitors attached and make sure he was breathing fine in there for something like 30 minutes). But they don't do that with full term babies and just check that you have an appriate seat. It has to have a lower weight limit that is suitable for your baby's weight and be rear facing. They don't care if it's a bucket seat or convertible here in California.
We had a borrowed infant seat last time and have a borrowed one this time too. I love the convenience of an infant seat and stroller frame for running quick errands with a sleeping baby. It was also nice to bring him in asleep from the car and not have to sit in the car until he woke up. We used it for 11 months and he could have fit in there longer, but it was July and a convertible was roomier and thus less hot at that point. I'm not entirely sure if we would have bought an infant seat new the first time or gone straight to a convertible if we weren't offered one for free. We might have had to anyway since he was barely 5lbs and I don't know if many convertible seats acommodate babies that small. This time I had already bought one when a friend offered hers.
Re: FFFC
Eta: I just looked it up and it looks like the law was written before they made the converabke seats able to accommodate infants under 20 lbs cause the law basically says to have them in a rear facing infant seat until either one year old or they reach 20 lbs then transfer then to the converable. But now I see seats on the market that are rare facing with an infant head support attachment. Maybe the law hasn't caught up with technology.
We had a borrowed infant seat last time and have a borrowed one this time too. I love the convenience of an infant seat and stroller frame for running quick errands with a sleeping baby. It was also nice to bring him in asleep from the car and not have to sit in the car until he woke up. We used it for 11 months and he could have fit in there longer, but it was July and a convertible was roomier and thus less hot at that point. I'm not entirely sure if we would have bought an infant seat new the first time or gone straight to a convertible if we weren't offered one for free. We might have had to anyway since he was barely 5lbs and I don't know if many convertible seats acommodate babies that small. This time I had already bought one when a friend offered hers.