Wondering whether to get a car capsule or convertible car seat?

[Possums]

Hi...I have had conflicting advice on this...some friends say not to worry about a capsule and just to get the carseat...others say they found the capsule good for the early months. Keen to hear feedback
Thanks ladies.

[Little Chicken]

I found a capsule great for the early months, but I hired one instead of buying it, as depending on your baby you might only be able to use it for a few months.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Personally i skipped the capsule my reasons:

1. My car wasn't big enough
2. I didn't see the point in spending $$ now and then in a couple of months buying another carseat IYKWIM
3. A friend had a capsule and i found it hardder getting the capsuel out without waking a bub than just taking my girls out and putting them in the pram.

It all comes down to personal choice really, but checking they fit in your car is a big thing for me.

[tellytubby]

I didn't do the capsule with my DD, and regretted it

Bought a capsule for my DS. Loved it, but was heavy.

[black_rose]

I had a capsule for ds, loved it he was in it for 8 months. He could stay asleep when we went out and I just put it in the trolley when shopping. I didnt need to use the pram until he outgrew the capsule. I wish I had used it with the girls. I had a unity capsule that went to 12kgs, but he got too long.

[Teeki]

Same as ZF here, went straight to reversible car seat. I didn't want to spend the extra dollars on one that'll only be used for a few months. Plus this way, bubs just stays in the same seat until next the baby comes along, then we'll reverse the seat again so new bubs hopefully gets lots of use out of it and we'll upgrade DD to a seat that will hopefully last her as long as she needs

[feeb]

Straight to car seat here to as didnt see point in extra money knowing my kids would be too big for it to fast.

Friends had them and found them heavy and annoying at times others loved them.

[kristi14]

It all comes down to what YOU want and think will work for you.

We have a sns meridian ahr car seat which is lush, but we bought a 2nd hand peg perego capsule so i could just easily lift it out and take it in to the school when i had to do kindy runs. Im a small person though and it really is too heavy and bulky for me to carry, so im finding im still just getting him out and carrying him. It is good when we go out and DH is with us though, he loves the capsule.........but hes bigger and stronger than me. I think i would actually prefer to put the sns car seat back in and leave the capsule in the boot to put DS in when needed..............which in itself makes having a capsule overall not really worth having. DS doesnt seem to like being in it in the car either, he screams for most of the car ride everywhere we go, not sure why.

They are handy though if u have the pram that the capsule can clip onto. But in saying that, i have the matching pram and have never attatched the capsule to it, DS loves being in the pram as it is.

If you are going to get a capsule look at the peg perego ones, they are bigger and therefore baby can be in them for longer.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Plus this way, bubs just stays in the same seat until next the baby comes along, then we'll reverse the seat again so new bubs hopefully gets lots of use out of it and we'll upgrade DD to a seat that will hopefully last her as long as she needs

Thats exactly what we did, DD1 used the turn-a-tot til DD2 came along, we borrowed SIL's other turn-a-tot then when DD1 was big enough we put her straight into a 'big girl seat'.

Also i had a pram that had a hard shelled baby carrier that could fit onto it so i ended up using that attachment where need be.

[sarahrach]

I was debating this same question and got some great advice which was - if I planned to do several car trips a day and essentially would be in and out of the car then a capsule is a good thing otherwise, go for the reversible.

[ferrals5]

Seeing as kid's now have to be in car seats until 7 years old most car seats are either birth to 4 yrs or or 6mths to 4 years and they now make 6mths to 7 years or have the old booster seats but they now have to have harnesses so you would still have to buy 2 eventually so we hired a capsule and brought a 6mths to 7 years car seat that way we only had to pay $80 for hire and then the cost of one car seat insted of 2 car seats and that one car seat will last until Ella is 7.

[Possums]

thanks so much everyone, you've all been really helpful!

we are leaning towards going straight to the car seat.

[Lenny]

I got a capsule and loved it. It is a little heavy, but my children were never big babies and DS1 stayed in it until he was almost 12 months and DS2 used it until he was 9.5 months. I loved keeping them rear-facing. I've seen too many youtube videos
I bought one (it was a babylove) and I feel I got my money's worth out of it. Nipping in to Drs appts, picking things up, going to visit people - i could just leave the boys strapped in and sleeping (on those rare occassions!!)

[Miss.B]

I was going to get the capsule, so I didn't have to wake up DS after a trip in the car and I was going to hire it rather than buying it, but I ended up with a convertible car seat instead. My main problem was that it was too heavy for me to carry around especially after I had a c/s and couldn't lift anything heavy for at least 6 weeks.

[LoveKnowsNoBounds]

We had DS is April and it was freezing. I was so glad we had the capsule as he was snug in there with a blanket. I also would've found it hard handling the baby and everything else getting into the car, you can set the capsule down whereas a baby you can't!

[Taurean]

We put DD straight into a car seat as we didn't see the point of a capsule when we had a good quality, rear-facing car seat. I wish I'd listened to those mum's who had used a capsule and recommend them, it would have been great on so many occassions! I really regret not using one with DD. Waking a sleeping baby from a car seat was a complete PITA! It would have been much easier to just take the capsule and let DD keep on sleeping! Especially as capsules connect into our pram Yeah, I really should have thought about it a bit more.

We will be either hiring or buying a capsule for this baby. Most of my friends have done the same with their second babies, we all 'learnt' our lesson, LOL! But each to their own

[~Stoked~]

I am wondering the same thing.

As I'll have a 20 month age gap between #2 & #3, I figure a capsule will be a good investment as i want to be able to strap my 20 month old in the car before the newborn as he is likely to run away! I can keep the capsule in the trolley or on the ground until #2 is safely strapped in then pop the capsule in.

Just thinking whether it'll be worth buying one or hiring.

[melbel]

We had a capsule, the peg perego one and whilst it seems you are going to get longer out of them because they are a tad longer, the weight only goes to 9 kilos in this country (even though they are rated to 12 kilos in Europe)....They are also the heaviest of the capsules to lift and when you add the baby weight in there you need som good biceps!

Connor outgrew his capsule length wise at 9 months and because we wanted to keep him rearfacing as long as possible we bought a convertible car seat. In hindsight I would still have got the capsule first even though it seems like we were double buying......it was so convenient to pop him on the pram base ( I didn't use the pram bassinette for ages because the capsule was so much more convenient, I could transfer him sleeping from car to pram or car to house easily. IF we are lucky enough to have a number two I would be looking at the maxicosi Mico capsule.....it is the lightest on the market and has one of the highest safety ratings overseas for a baby capsule...also it fits onto most of the travel system prams with the adapters. If you buy a good capsule like the peg perego or maxicosi, they have an excellent resale value on ebay unlike some of the domestic models.....we got back almost all of what we paid for ours, only lost $50 in the resale so for us it was a good purchase.

To answer your question Stoked about buy or hire....look at the resale values on ebay.....you may find that for some of the better models it works out cheaper to buy new and sell on when you are done, than it will cost you to hire for an extended time.....plus you will know for sure you are getting a brand new seat that has guaranteed never been in an accident etc etc..... just my thoughts on it.....