Car Seat Recomendations

[oddspyke]

First kid is on the way (apparently arriving in October). Totally unprepared and my situation is slightly complicated - didn't think I'd be having one. Nonetheless, she's coming and I couldn't be more thrilled. I think I'm going to need a car seat. Any good recommendations?

Realized I didn't say congrats in my first post, so Congrats!

If I can offer one other piece of advice, get the book Cribsheet and read it before the kid arrives. Best $10 I ever spent. It's not going to make you a super parent or anything, but it does help keep you from stressing about the stuff that really doesn't matter.

 

[IanCH]

Both of Emily Oster's books were the only books I actually read fully before my daughter was born. It's really great that she wrote those because even the doctors tell you wrong stuff because it's still ingrained in the standard of care. Like the breastfeeding is better than formula thing. Mothers should breastfeed because it's way cheaper and more convenient but they shouldn't be made to feel like they are hurting their child if they can't do it or it doesn't work out.

 

[victorofhavoc]

We ran the doona for the first year, and it wasn't cheap, but was worth every penny. For first year, you just can't argue with how easy it makes things.

Year 1 on we've been using the graco seats since they're usually the shortest front to back when seated properly and that's the size issue other seats have in the back of the gti. The graco slim fit, graco dlx, and graco grow4me have all been pretty solid and fit into the rear of the gti both front and rear facing. In rear facing I can't easily fit as a 6' person, so I moved the seat to the passenger side. The key is seat angle for the rear since certain angles are needed for rear facing and for certain weights at front facing.

We use a Bob jogger as a stroller.

Also looked into a few Britax things and found several required attachments to attach a seat to stroller (which had to be removed prior to collapsing it) and everything was huge and clunky to the point the strollers wouldn't fit in the gti without folding seats. This is the reason we went doona. Even other ones that click into Bob need adapters that have to be taken off to fold (silly).

 

[MonkeyMD]

We ran the doona for the first year, and it wasn't cheap, but was worth every penny. For first year, you just can't argue with how easy it makes things.

Year 1 on we've been using the graco seats since they're usually the shortest front to back when seated properly and that's the size issue other seats have in the back of the gti. The graco slim fit, graco dlx, and graco grow4me have all been pretty solid and fit into the rear of the gti both front and rear facing. In rear facing I can't easily fit as a 6' person, so I moved the seat to the passenger side. The key is seat angle for the rear since certain angles are needed for rear facing and for certain weights at front facing.

We use a Bob jogger as a stroller.

Also looked into a few Britax things and found several required attachments to attach a seat to stroller (which had to be removed prior to collapsing it) and everything was huge and clunky to the point the strollers wouldn't fit in the gti without folding seats. This is the reason we went doona. Even other ones that click into Bob need adapters that have to be taken off to fold (silly).

We never took the attachments off our BOB stroller and it folds fine. You're right about it being big and clunky though. But it stayed in the CX9 so it was never a problem. Although it did fit in my Golf, but nothing else would fit in the trunk with it.

 

[bentin]

I guess I’m lucky to have one kid. The single BOB was easy to fit in my car. Hell, I fit our Burley Solo in there pretty easily.