Car Seats! $#%$%^$^

[saltyveruca]

Ladies, I just feel like I need to point out that I am really not enjoying our car seat purchasing experience the 2nd time around!

Finn is pushing the height limit on his infant seat (not to mention his poor squished legs) and it's time to get him a new one. I want to keep him rear facing until he is at least 2+, but he is a tall kid. I am having trouble finding one that is:

-Rear facing beyond 40" (he is 34" and it seems like he is growing 1"/month these days...cutting it too close for me!)
-Breathable fabric (he is sooooo hot in his microfiber SnugRide fabric, yuck!)
-Goes to 100lbs (I do NOT want to do this again!)
-Fits in our car
-Not $250

These are the ones that I am considering:

This is the current front-runner. (Goes up to 50", yay, but only 65lbs, we will *groan* have to do this again later for a booster. And I have no idea if it fits in our car.) http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Year...pr_product_top

I really like it on paper, but it's ugly and the padding sucks. I don't think he will enjoy riding in this one. Probably not going to get this one. http://www.amazon.com/Diono-RadianR1...5970121&sr=8-1

This one is the best now and for future kids (it has a TEN YEAR expiration date!), but OUCH that price! http://www.amazon.com/Graco-SmartSea...5970121&sr=8-9

He is well within the ranges of forward facing seats. I am so tempted just to go forward facing and save ourselves the frustration (and $$$). He does *love* riding forward, we tried it once, and his legs would have wiggle room! This one would last us for-ev-er, but I am so scared to turn him around already! Oh, and it's way cheaper!

http://www.amazon.com/Graco-Nautilus...5966093&sr=8-1

Ahh I am so conflicted! This is worse than buying tampons! Too many choices!

[girlggc]

I'm not a mom, but if I were you, I'd eliminate the Nautilus. In my opinion, the safety of rear facing is much more important than wiggle room for feet.

[Salayia]

That's tough! When Makayna grows out of her infant seat, the one we're going with is the Diono Radian RXT, which is a step up from the regular Diono Radian that you linked to, but yeah... the price. But, we figure it rear faces to 45 lbs, 5 point harnesses to 80 lbs and goes up to 120 lbs total, has the convenient alligator clip latches, is very narrow, and meets all of our other requirements, but I can understand the price being a show stopper. We found it for $250 here, but I know you don't want to spend that much.

DH *ALMOST* bought the First Years True Fit that you linked to for his car, but instead went with the Evenflo Triumph Advance LX because it was on sale at Babies R Us for $109 until tomorrow!!! I'm not sure if that's just our Babies R Us that has it on sale or if it's a nationwide thing, but you might look into that if it interests you. Still only goes up to 65 lbs, but it was a HELL of a price and it gets really awesome reviews on Amazon! (the one I linked to is the exact one that DH bought at Babies R Us). It's still showing $149 on babiesrus.com but I'd check out your local Babies R Us to see if it's on sale there.

The other one that's on sale at our Babies R Us until tomorrow is the Evenflo Symphony LX for $149. Again, you might check out your BRU to see if there are any car seats on sale there.

The Evenflo ones seem to be cheaper at BRU than they are on Amazon. The one we bought is currently $171 on Amazon, but is normally $149 at BRU, and on sale for $109, so even though BRU is normally more experience, on some things, they tend to be cheaper.

Anyways, I hope that helps and that you find a car seat that you love that meets all of your requirements!

[Salayia]

I just wanted to follow up that the sales ARE nationwide sales and the Evenflo Symphony goes up to 100 lbs like you wanted, and it's $149 until tomorrow and then goes back up to $199.

[Danielle9608]

We have this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Year...pr_product_top in Jon's car and it sits up very upright and Averi is very squished sitting rear facing in his car and she is 33 inches tall. So if rear facing till 2 is very important to you I would suggested another one. I have this one http://airprotect.safety1st.com/about.php in my car and it sits back more reclined so she is a lot more comfortable rear facing in my car. BUT this does take up a ton of room. It wouldn't even fit rear facing in Jon's car a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

[FFC]

I have the Air Protect/Safety1st convertible for Katie as well. I have her rear facing and so far she's okay with leg room at 32" tall. It's just a b**** to move if you go from vehicle to vehicle with it - unless you have the LATCH system.

You can get 25% off at BRU with a trade in

[saltyveruca]

Ladies, thank you for your input and for letting me vent! We finally just went to BRU last night about an hour before close, determined not to leave without a seat! We are so terrible about committing, that's how we had to do it!

So we got a seat. Yay!


http://www.evenflo.com/product.aspx?id=332&pfid=4281

We ended up spending more than I'd hoped, but it was 20% off w/ a coupon so it came in under $200 anyway. We got our choices down to two pretty quickly (the other one was a FF), and then agonized over those for like 20 minutes. Like 5 minutes before close, the car seat guy came over and I asked him which one we should get. He didn't hesitate to tell us this one. So that made it easy. Bless him. Haha.

I am really glad that we got this one. It goes all the way from 5lbs to 100lbs, so it will be good for the next kiddo, too, if Finn isn't using it at the time. As soon as we're done hauling the little one around in the infant carrier, we can move on to this one. And JD really likes that it has (faux) leather. LOL

Success!

So of course all of this sparked a "when are we having the next one?" conversation. I told him I want to enjoy the summer, lose some weight now that I'm not BFing anymore, and just kind of live it up for a while before I'm a boring pregnant lady again. Haha. I told JD we could start trying in October, and he is super jazzed about that! He still wants 3 kids. We will see about that.

[Salayia]

Congrats on choosing a carseat!