Why did we wait until 35 weeks...

I just need to vent a little.. This whole pregnancy I've been thinking the carseats would fit no problem in our pickup. When we bought them we just sat them in there real quick to make sure all 3 would fit and it looked good, so we put them in the house and forgot about them.

Yesterday I turned 35 weeks and we were like "we better get the car seats in the truck now so it's all ready." Well while my husband was washing the car I decided to start getting them all buckled. Low and behold the infant carriers fit, but no-one will be able to ride in the passenger seat, unless they sit straight up and close to the dash, and I will be the only one able to drive, but will have to sit closer to the steering wheel than normal. I also discovered that the "Latch" system is only in the middle seat, so our 2 year old will be the only one whose carseat is Latched in. The twins will have the seat-belts buckling theirs in, but we also have to use the little metal thing to stop the seat-belt from coming lose. UGH...

Oh.. And I couldn't get the seats tight.. No matter what I did.. My husband is going to go "finagle" the seats today and see what he can do. I'm just stressing out now..

We already planned to buy an Expedition next year, but we were hoping that we'd be able to wait until my husband gets back from his deployment next year around September. BUT... Now I'm thinking we might need to get it now so that it's easier for me to deal with while he's gone..

BLAH... Anyway.. I just had to vent.. I'm hoping when my husband goes to look at it he'll figure out something I've missed.

Anyone have a Chevy Silverado 1500 extended cab that they fit 2 infant seats and a toddler car seat in easily?

 

I'm sorry for your frustration - I know it's hard to figure out what will work in advance. Maybe there is a silver lining here, usually you can get some great car deals at the end of the year. And a lot of dealers are still trying to match clunker deals on trade ins. I hope you can find something that works!!

 

When my girls first came home we had a Chevy Silverado 1500, and we were able to fit both of the Infant seats in there and still have room up front. Granted we didn't have the additional Toddler car seat though. My DH and I are both very tall (5'10" and 6'4") so the room up front was necessary for both of us. I never installed the seats though, my DH always did that so I have no idea what he did. I hope you guys are able to figure it out. FWIW, the truck only last 2 months with the twins because there just wasn't enough room for us and ALL of our stuff. We got a Chevy Tahoe, and I love that I finally have more room!! Good Luck!!

 

Kyrstyn, that's good to know.. How did you configure the car seats? Side by side? or one behind the driver and passenger seats?

 

We had one behind the driver and one behind the passenger. It was too hard to lift the carrier up and over all the way to the middle seat. What car seats are you using? We had the Graco Snugrides.

 

We have a 2-door older 90-something Chevy Silvarado w/ extended cab and we had a hard enough time fitting 1 Graco infant seat and 1 toddler seat, that we are not even going to attempt 2 infant seats in addition to 2 toddler seats this time around. We had a hard time fitting 4 seats in our Honda Pilot too since it was a 2003 and the middle seats would not slide with car seats installed. Lucky that was the first thing we thought of when we found out that we were having twins at 20 weeks! Luckily, we sold our pilot on Craigslist and bought a used Toyota Sienna minivan within a week (we had even put brand new tires on it just the week before to get things prepared for a new baby)! I always swore I would never drive a minivan, but I am really starting to love it now. We went with an 8 passenger and automatic sliding doors on both sides. My 2 and 3 year old LOVE it and think it is a treat to sit in the 3rd row and know how to opperate the doors themselves. We plan to have the twins in the middle with and extra seat that I can sit in if I need to and the 2 older ones in the back, but the Sienna was like 6 inches wider than the Pilot and 4 inches wider than the Honda Odyssey, so we can easily fit all 3 seats across the middle if we want to. With all 3 rows being used, there is plenty of room behind the last row for a double jogging stroller, groceries, etc. And if we do go on a long trip we can put 1 in the back and fold down 2 of the seats to create extra room. With the Pilot, we could not fit the jogging stoller in with all 3 rows occupied and there was not much room for anything else. We loved our pilot and hated to see it go, but it was worth more than the truck and we didn't want to go into major debt. We still talk about getting rid of the truck for another SUV so it would be more practical for our family, but we have one great vehicle and are not in a hurry for another at this point. Good luck in your search!

 

Sorry about your dilema. I am 31 weeks preggo with twin girls and went car seat shopping last week. I wanted the baby trend carseats because they looked so comfy. I have three children ages 6,4 and 2 and I used the Graco snugride with all of them. As I was trying out the car seats, I found that the baby trend did not buckel in easily and no matter how hard I tried I could not get it tightly in. Therefore, I ended up choosing the Graco Snugride again because I knew it would be a good fit. I have a ford excursion and I just love it. I will be putting in 3 carseats and 2 booster seats and they all will fit. Yes, I am now out of room in my car but we will all fit comfortablely.

 

AHHH! Another Excursion driver! We have one also and I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. We have the older boys in the back row in their Marathons, and in the middle we've got the twins on the 60 split in the infant seats and our daughter on the 40 split with her booster. She just gets in after the boys are buckled in the back. They are graduating to booster seats at Christmas tho so it will be even easier. We have room for one more passenger once the boys are in boosters - right now we're maxed as the Marathons are wide seats and there is no space for anyone between them.

To Amy - I think for your sanity going to the Expedition will be much better than fighting with the lack of space in the Silverado. Once the seats are IN they will be fine, but you'll find that leaning over the base of the infant seat to buckle your toddler in will be not very comfy - and that means you have to put one infant seat either on the ground (not safe in a parking lot) or on the front seat while you do it....with the Expedition you'll be able to get everyone INTO the vehicle safely and then buckle your toddler in.

 

thanks for all of the replies! We have the Baby Trend seats, because that's what we had with our son and loved it.. We always used the Latch system though.. The pickup only has the Latch in the middle so we had to use the seat belts, and I'll be honest, the seats aren't as tight as I'd like.. They are perfectly safe, but with our first son it didn't budge a wink.. UGH... At this point it will do, but before the end of the year we'll be going car shopping...