car seats

Did anyone skip the infant seats and move right to the rear facing convertable car seats? Just curious. I have the girls in infant carriers now but am thinking of moving them into the rear facing seats. I want to move my oldest back into a harnessed car seat instead of the booster he is currently using. I know it would be a pain but I think it would be safer for my son to be in a car seat at this point. Just an FYI I don't have a stroller I can use with my infant carriers. I have to take the girls out and put them in the stroller. We use the stroller 99% of the time. If we were going somewhere where I would need the seats I would just put them in the trunk and take them out when we needed.

 

We didn't, but we had the stroller for them and it was just so much easier for me to put them in the stroller when they were already in the carseats. As long as you have the convertible RF carseat for their size-go for it! Seeing how you don't have a stroller, I don't see why not. I know some people used those infant carriers(at least I did) more from a convenience perspective.

 

I love having my girls in the infant carrier. Just today I went to Target with my 4 girls. Plopped the babies in the grocery cart - One was in the basket, the second was in the seat section (I know not the safest, but it worked for our outing), the two older girls were in the seats that were attached to the grocery cart (kinda like the car/grocery carts you might see at your local grocery store, but these were seats where near me where you do the pushing -- hope I didn't confuse you!). I couldn't have got my shopping down without them in their seats. I also have a Baby Trend Snap-n-Go which I also use all the time when my oldest DS is with us - he pushes the stroller while I do the grocery shopping and manage the other 2 girls. I also plan on using mine as long as I can to get my money's worth!

 

The infant seats are really convenient when the babies are really little (like mine) and sleep all the time. I know when I get home from wherever I just pull them out and let them sleep in their seats until they wake up. That part would stink. In order to set up the seats the way I want I have to buy another Radian carseat which costs $225. We have two in the van already. I would need another to seat three across in the back row of my van. But I was just thinking by the time I can talk DH into buying another Radian the girls will probably be able to sit up on their own.

 

We had the twins in the infant carriers for 4 months and everytime I pulled them out of the car to put them in the stroller (we like you, didn't have a snap and go and put them in a stroller that didn't accomodate) I would curse the infant carrier. So, we got them the rear facing convertables and I'm in LOVE! I have a 2 year old as well as my 9 month old twins and we have all three Sunshine Kid Radians in our wagon. Its perfect!

 

I found a good deal on diapers.com. The Radian would only be $183 plus free shipping. I think the 20% off plus telling DH it would split the three older kids up meaning less fighting in the car should sell him on getting another seat. I just have two perfectly good seats sitting empty at my IL's house now so he sees all these unused car seats and gets aggravated when I want to buy another. I might see if my SIL is willing to buy it too and then she can get an additional 10% off for being a new customer and we can just pay her the money back.

 

With the twins, we use the infant seats, but I am highly debating switching in a couple months because they seats are very heavy for me to get out of our Expedition (especially the baby in the middle seat) and my girls are only 10lbs right now!! ugh!!

With my older daughter, she HATED her infant seat so we bought a Britax within the first month and she loved it! I was fine with it, but the only downside is that you have to buckle and unbuckle them every time your are in/out of the car, so if you make multiple stops in one go, you probably won't be able to keep them asleep the whole time like you can with an infant seat (but for me, my daughter wouldn't sleep in the seat anyways so it was a mute point).

Good luck!

 

We are still using the infant carriers (but getting very close to outgrowing them) and I have found them to be very convenient. We have a Peg Perego Duette so they snap right into the stroller chassis making it easy to go from home-car and vice versa. But seeing as you don't have a stroller that the car seats can fit into anyway you may as well put them into rear facing seats if it's safer for everyone.