Carseat question

[yaya_mama]

We used a Graco Snugride with Matani until he outgrew it at a mere 4 1/2 months, at which point we moved him to his Britax Roundabout, which he still uses. We were very happy with the Graco, and love the Roundabout.

Now, assuming #2 is on a schedule something like Matani, s/he could be ready for the Roundabout in about 9 or 10 months (i.e. at

Comments

[badtzmaru08]

This is what we have right now.
I haven't seen a regent but N (32 mos) is very happy in the britax marathon. Right now M (10 mos) is still in the graco - I'm thinking when she graduates from the graco, we'd get her a britax roundabout. When she graduates from that, hopefully, N won't need the marathon anymore (having moved on to a buster seat ;)).
I have an acura integra (4 door). S drives mustang (2 door). Both have the marathon and graco base. The marathon when forward facing fits nicely in both cars.
I'm not sure that answers your question!

[yaya_mama]

10 months and still in the graco! Ooh, how lovely to have a petite little girl! I would have loved keeping M (my M! lol) in the graco that long. But he was sooooo big so fast!

So you're thinking a roundabout and a marathon will together fit in your car(s)? I suppose both could fit in a small-medium car if they're both forward facing, although it would be hard for an adult to fit with them in the back seat. But what scares me is trying to get a forward-facing Marathon into a car with a rear-facing Roundabout.

* shudders *

[badtzmaru08]

So you're thinking a roundabout and a marathon will together fit in your car(s)?
I think so. The thing is the positions of the carseats maybe different. In the acura, marathon is behind drive, graco base is in the middle. In the mustang, marathon is behind driver, graco is behind passenger (which noone ever sits because it's pushed too forward.
I'm hoping that I can keep the same position with marathon and roundabout. We'll see.
although it would be hard for an adult to fit with them in the back seat.
I doubt that any adults would fit back there :) but with both facing forward, the adult can sit in the passenger up front, of course there will be only 4 people in the car instead of 5.
We don't plan to buy a minivan any time. The next car will be Toyota Prius. We're just nuts ;)
Anyway, I guess that is more than you want to know :)

options:

[speck]

post this public and I'll direct amanda79, goddess of all things Car Seat here, or friend her or drop me your email addy and I can send her an email and hook you two up.

Though I am interested in her thoughts and would like to read any thread she participates in as we get ready to bump Wolfie up soon from his Safe Embrace.

Re: options:

[yaya_mama]

Going to go edit and make it public right now. TIA, Mynn.

[mel_hams]

We have the Marathon (as does my sister for both of her kiddos, only #2 hasn't moved up to it yet) and have no complaints.

[yaya_mama]

Wait, but don't you have a big car? Our Focus is our *big* car. LOL.

[phart]

We have the snugride and marathon in our '96 Maxima which does have a big backseat but it's not a minivan or anything.

[amanda79]

I think the Regent and the Marathon would both be good choices, just depening on how much use you want to get out of the seat. Trey still fits in a Marathon at 3.5 and 40 pounds -- but the Regent is his main seat. The Marathon is his sister's.

We actually just drove a Ford Focus loaner car last weekend -- the seats fit next to each other but there is no way a 3rd passenger could have fit back there. The Regent is huge and heavy and probably not a good seat to get it you switch between cars often. The Regent costs a little less though. :)

Soo...they're both safe, he could use the Regent longer but the Marathon takes up a little less space width wise -- but even with a Marathon and a Roundabout I'm not real sure you could fit a 3rd person in the back so space may be a moot point.

[juneypie]

CH has a Marathon, and I think we're getting a Roundabout for Simon, who has really already outgrown his bucket(but my ped said to keep him in it even so until 4 months(which is tomorrow) because of neck control stuff. I'm not fighting it because if he can last another week he'll be able to sit up on his own, so getting them in and out of the car won't be such a logistical nightmare.). The Marathon took up way too much space while rear facing- on an outboard side it would be impossible to sit in the front seat (in our Subaru Forrester). I think it would take up about the same amount of space as a Roundabout forward facing. But to be honest carseats are not really my thing. I think the big leap in safety was to get them out of the front seat with proper sized harnesses, and beyond that it's splitting hairs. So I can tell you what we did, but it't not like I did all these oodles of research, and I'm passing along my hard earned knowledge.