need help choosing new suv/van that will allow me to bottle feed on trips

hi,

we live in a city and the twins and i mostly travel by stroller but we do a lot of driving over the summer. 4 hour trips 3x a month to a summer home.

we currently have a jetta wagon and the fit is just too tight. if i sit up front, my knees are in the dash because we are tall and the buckets take up so much room in the back. i've heard the situation will not improve with RF convertible seats

on long drives i usually sit i the back and bottlefeed them and entertain when necessary. we need a new car that will allow me to still do this so we dont have to stop for feeds.

we were hoping to be able to get a mid-size, 7 passenger SUV but it looks like 7 passenger SUVs usually have captain chairs in the middle row and no place for someone to sit in the middle? am i wrong?

we always thought we were too cool for a van, but i think we might need to swing that direction. but i'm thinking only an 8 passenger van would work so i'd have a middle seat in the middle row?

here are the things we "need":
7+ passenger
fit 2 recaro convertible seats and mommy in the middle
not pathetic gas mileage
possible entertainment system in back


also.. in your car of choice, how do you deal with feeding your babies on the road? do you sit in the middle to bottle feed? is there anything else i can do?

 

I've not fed my babies in the car because I figure I would have to get them out to burp them anyways that we would just stop. But anyways....I have a '07 Chrysler Pacifica and I love it! It has the 3rd row option so ours seats 7 and has 2 bucket seats in the middle and a bench in the back that I could sit in and entertain/possibly feed if need be. It gets about 28-32mpg/highway and about 22-25mpg/city...so for an SUV/crossover I think it gets great mileage! Plus with all the bankruptcy going on now you could probably get a pretty sweet deal on a Chrysler. I love my Pacifica and I'm glad we bought it, even if it was before we found out we we're pregnant with twins. Oh, we don't have a TV or anything but you can get that as an option

 

We've always stopped when anyone needed to eat. When they were infants, we just planned our stops around their feeding schedule. I figured even babies need to stretch. Yes it makes the trip a bit longer, but it helps them stay content when they are stuck in the car seats.

 

My husband and I travel 6 hours to my parents house and we always stop at the rest stop to feed the girls. I definitely don't want to chance taking them out of their car seats to burp them and have a terrible accident or get a ticket. Yes, it made our trips a little bit longer but it's so worth it. Plus, they can get out of the car and stretch their little legs and take in new scenery.

 

We have a mini van. I didn't think I would like the mini van either but with 3 kids it became a must. It has a DVD player built in which is wonderful. My parents live 5.5 hrs away and DH's are 3 hrs. I have planned the stops around their feeding schedule at rest stops on the way to my parents. Even have traveld this alone without DH. I had them in the back and sat between them and fed. Then burped them and got back on the road. Older DD watched a movie while I was doing this so she wasn't bored. The last time I made the trip by myself and the boys are much older I stopped at a restaurant and we ate and fed the boys etc....It made it a longer trip but more enjoyable.
As far as the Pacifica goes I don't want to say it's not a good car but a really good friend of mine has one and we were going somewhere together....Me and my 3 and her DD. We got all the carseats in the car but my stroller would not fit. There just wasn't anyway to get it in there. So for me when we were shopping for vans I put the stroller in the trunk to see if it would fit on every test drive. So I would say think about everything that you would normally take with you on your road trips and how long you plan to keep the car and if other children will be in the picture before you would buy another one. Good luck with your decision.

 

QUOTE(Daria @ May 24 2009, 07:23 AM) [snapback]1326213[/snapback]
we always thought we were too cool for a van, but i think we might need to swing that direction. but i'm thinking only an 8 passenger van would work so i'd have a middle seat in the middle row?


Vans are the new 'cool', didn't you hear?! :lol: Seriously though, once you have a van, you will wonder why you didn't get one sooner! They rock! I have the 7 passenger Toyota Sienna, but there is an option for another seat in the middle row, making it 8. Good luck with your search!

 

We have a Rav 4 (which has a 3rd row option...but ours doesn't) and there is NO WAY I can squeeze between their seats. I drive (usually by myself) 12 hrs to my parents house at least twice a year and just stop to feed them. It does add extra time to the trip, but the more you do it, the faster it goes. Sorry I don't have any advice on a car!

 

We have the Odyessy and I love it. It was the best purchase we ever made. Our second row has a removable middle seat that I sit in between the babies to feed them their bottles. My boys are not big burpers, so I can feed them as we drive. I also love the doors that open on their own.

 

We have the Chevrolet Traverse. It has the full 2nd & 3rd row seating. My girls 4 & 7 yrs. old--love the 3rd row seating and the boys are in the 2nd row. I've sat back there several times between the boys & was comfortable. However, it wasn't for a 3+ hour drive. The gas mileage is reasonable for a SUV. If nobody would be sitting in the 3rd row....you would have plenty of cargo space too. We have portable DVD players for the girls, but I'm sure it has an option for the entertainment system. Good luck with your search!

 

We have the Traverse and its works great for kids, although I don't think I would chance feeding them in their seats as my boys are big spitters. We have the built entertainment system, I don't know how I ever did without it before. Gas mileage is okay, better than the Jeep Grand Cherokee I had before. The biggest thing I like about it, is its not long or huge like a suburban so we feel comfortable driving it in the city.

 

You just need to buy a cool van

We have an Odyssey and you can fit a ton of stuff in it.

Can't help you with the feeding while driving as I BF.

Good luck with your choice.

 

We have a bigger family so we needed a vehicle too, but we also needed storage space for trips because we make yearly trips to my parents place, from south carolina to canada every summer. Mini vans just didn't have the "trunk" space necessary for luggage for 6 people (plus stroller for twins), so we went with a GMC Yukon XL. It does have the captains chairs but you can find them with a full 2 row as well if you look close. We bought used last fall and got a HECK of a great deal because no-one wanted "gas guzzlers". Granted it only gets about 18 mpg on the highway, but it's about the same as our GMC Jimmy does, but the Jimmy was only 5 passenger.

One option would be on shorter around town trips, to put the babies in the captains chairs. And then on longer trips put them in the 3rd row and sit between. But I will tell you, it's very squishy back there with just two booster seats, if you are really skinny you could probably fit between two infant or convertible seats, I just don't know how comfy it would be.

We also plan our trips around stopping to feed children. Even our 3 day drives to canada we plan our rest stops for feeding times.

 

thanks everyone for all the help. this gives us ideas of other cars to look at.

i'm pretty skinny so even in our jetta, i can sit more comfortably between the twins than up front in the passenger seat!

we don't really have to burp them, so its worked out when i feed them while we drive. the one time we tried to stop it added an hour to our trip

thanks again.. i didn't expect so much help so quick!

 

I wasn't the van type either and I still don't love driving a minivan, but I do love the convenience of my Honda Odyssey. We took out the middle seat of the second row and slid the captains chair over to the middle making the third row accessible from the sliding door. When I feed them on the road I get in the very back and lean over the seats. The things I love are that the third row can be accessed from the sliding door (when we were looking this was impossible to find in anything other than a minivan and only two models of vans), the automatic doors, the HUGE storage in the back it holds two double strollers easy and is not as high to lift things into as an SUV.

We also have an Explorer with the third row seat and can do the same thing in it. I'm little and I don't know that I could fit between the big convertible seats, but I haven't tried I would have to climb over seats to get there though.