For those with a toddler, infant twins, and a minivan...

We have a Toyota Sienna and are installing car seats for the twins, coming any time now. I know we can just rearrange as convenience dictates, but I thought I'd get some opinions!

In our middle row, we have three separate seats that do form a bench when they are all in, but any of them can be taken out. In the back we will probably just keep all the seats installed (so it is a bench).

Right now, I'm thinking we do this:

-- Middle row: Remove one of the side seats and possibly the middle seat. Put our toddler's car seat in the one remaining side seat.

-- Back row: Put one twin car seat on the left side and the other twin car seat on the right side.

This way I can open the sliding door on the opposite side of my toddler and have easy access to all three seats.

Am I making sense? :blink:

What did you do?

 

I was faced with the same situation. I took my Honda Oddessy to a professional installer to get them installed and he recommend putting the twins in the middle row (middle mini-seat removed) and my 4 year old in the back. He said that that was his recommendation to put the babies in the safety possible spots which is the middle. It's been working out ok for us. My 4 year old thinks she's the "captain" in the back and makes sure everyone is ok.

 

We have our twins in the middle row (captains chairs) and my older DD in the back row. It was much easier to get them things as needed when they were closer to the front seat.

 

I did the same....twins in the middle row, ends. toddler in the back center. The car seat carriers are easy in and out. They will get heavy fast!

 

I do this!!
LOVE the empty floor space it provides- I diaper change on it regularly, I can set both baby buckets there out of elements.
I climb in and unbuckle my daughter and she climbs down while I unload the twins. Then we all exit through the open side of the van. I don't have to walk back and forth around the vehicle and I always park furtheR to one side of parking spaces since I don't access that side of the van. This way I know I'll be able to fit stroller between my vehicle and the next. I will continue with this cofiguration as long as I can LOVE it! also allows me to talk to DD#1, sing songs etc as I drive since the twins are usually asleep anyways- I can't imagine having to holler back to her if she wasd in the 3rd row.

BTW I sit between the twins in the 3rd row if DH is with us.
Good luck!

 

This is how I still have my seats even though my girls are older now. 2 are in the very back, one middle seat (the driver's side) is down, and my oldest sits behind the the front passenger.

Like the PP mentioned, it's great to store stuff, for diaper changes, and I just climb in to buckle the little girls in the back (or lift in the infant seats.)

 

Our twins are in the captain's chairs in the middle row and my 5YO is in his 5-pt harness seat in the 3rd row. I thought we'd be putting him in the second row and the twins in the back, but we never ended up moving the seats back there after the twins first came home. I can still easily reach back from the side door to help him with his buckles, and I think he really likes the view from the back. Plus, getting the baby seats snapped into the bases is much easier on the back with them in the middle row. Works for us!

 

I have 5 kids that ride in the van. What we found is that with the infant seats in the middle, no one could get to the back seat. So in the back, which is a bench, we have twin, Izzy, twin. For the middle, which has captain's chairs, it's the older two

 

We have been thinking a lot about our next vehicle and the fact that we will have 2 rear-facing convertible seats then. We have no other kids so we will definitely put them in the middle row bucket seats. But will we be able to get around the convertible seats if I (or the in-laws) need to get to the third row?? What all is involved in that? I'm hoping one of the bucket seats will slide back enough, or to the middle, so that somebody would be able to get by instead of crawling under one of the convertible seats! How do others that put 2 rear facing convertibles in the middle row get to the third row??

 

Great replies everyone, thank you!! I have two good options to consider.

:thanks:

 

I have Sienna. I took the Captains chairs and moved one over so that they were pushed to one side so that there is a walkway to the back for people. Put the twins in the captains chairs and put my older DD in the back on the side so that she could walk back on the side and get in her seat. Now that they are older, we still have 2 carseats in the captains chairs and one in the back and they can ride however they want. We have also taken out one of the captains chairs and put 2 seats in the back and one in the other captains chair. Endless possibilities when they get older.

 

We don't have a mini van but a big SUV, and we put the twins in the middle row, and my two older kids in the far back. My kids had to crawl underneath the infant and convertible seats to get into the back seat, there wasn't enough room for them to slide by unless I left the passenger front seat all the way forward (and then I can't fit in the seat).

It's so easy to snap the infant seats into the captain's chairs in the middle than it would be to try to haul them to the back of our vehicle

 

This is what I do. You should know that (at least in my Sienna) there is no latch for the far back seat directly behind the driver. Also the two captains chairs have to be pushed to the side behind the driver or with a middle aisle. There's no option on mine to put them behind the passanger. If you have the two infant car seats in the captains chairs, they do take up a lot of room. I removed the headrests so I can lean over them to buckle ODS in.

 

Thanks DATJMom and mommylaura! I did not know that the Sienna's captain seat (passenger side) would slide to the middle. That is exactly what we would want! I kept thinking there was no point getting a minivan if myself or the in-laws wouldn't be able to get to the third row, that we might as well get an SUV instead (though the automatic doors on a minivan are a big plus). But now that I know Sienna's second row captain's seat will move sideways I am definitely leaning towards a Sienna (and I've heard great things about them from coworkers too).

 

We have had 2 different set-ups that I liked (and a few I didn't!). Our current set up is twins in 3rd row and 3 yr old on passenger's side in the middle row. My oldest has to be on passenger's side for preschool drop-off, so this is easiest. Also, one of my twins is not a good traveler, so I sit in between them if needed on car trips. The olther set-up I liked was to remove the middle seat in the middle row and push the captains chairs together. We put the twins in those 2 seats and then the oldest on the passenger side in the 3rd row. I liked this when the babies were very little and I was driving by myself becasue it was easier to reach the babies if needed.

 

We have this issue too of not being able to get by the seats to the back so the twins ride in the 3rd row and our toddler is in the 2nd row passenger side. When our 11 yo is not with us we just stow the other captains chair but when she is with us it is more work. We have to either stow her seat and take it out each time we get in and out or liftthe babies up and over her folded seat. If the toyota can make this easier with its pushing the 2 chairs together I am soooo all over that as we will be getting a new van in August.

Good luck!

 

We bought an 08 Sienna 8 passenger 3 weeks ago as my dh Dodge was about the bite the dust :giggle: Anyways, I went with the 8 passenger as I could get the right seat configuration that was right for us. Our twins are 14mos and are still rear facing and will be till the weight limit on their seats which is probably going to be 2 yrs old. With that in mind, we needed a van that gave our older ds access to the back row w/o having to crawl under the twins car seat.

So, our twins are seated right behind the driver seat and the middle smaller seat and the seat that is right behind the passenger seat will be taken out. That gives us some floor room which is nice but it also gives our ds room to get to his seat which is passenger outboard. The other part of the 3rd row is folded into the floor which gives me room for groceries and the stroller.

We will be traveling to Wisconsin Dells the end of the week and we will be testing our van to see how well this set up works for us! It works well for around town. I love it! We wont be taking the stroller so that will give us more room for luggage. Oh, I am going to be keeping the seat thats right behind the passenger seat in but tumbled forward so my ds can still get to his seat but I will have a seat to sit in if I choose to sit in the back and also a headrest for my ds to put a dvd player on.

 

You should check the owner's manual for your car. I know that with our large SUV you cannot put infant seats in the 3rd row for safety reasons and when we were looking at minivans the dealer told us the same thing about the 3rd row. We consulted some online manual that gave this kind of info, but unfortunately I can't find it now. SORRY and good luck!