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.....
Last edited by melbel; May 30th, 2011 at 04:39 PM.
I used a reversable car seat (the same car seat) for all three of my children.
We are now buying a capsule for baby number 4 (our last baby).
Capsules are just more convient. The reason we have decided to go the extra expense this time around is because the capsule can be used with my P&T's pram, which is going to be ALOT easier for me when I have to do anything with the kids. In particular with school runs on rainy days (we have to pick up directly from the classroom on rainy days), it means I won't have to wake bubs up to get all the kids out of the car to go in the school to pick up my DD. Considering school runs tend to be right around the traditional nap times of my kids, this will be a lifesaver. The capsule we are buying (s'n's unity) goes up to 12kgs - which is about 1yr old. Most capsules will only go up to 8-9kgs. We still have the convertible car seat for bubs to go back into once they outgrow the capsule.
Possums - check with you local council and see if they have a service where you can hire a capsule for 6 months. We did this and found it perfect. I really liked being able to get DD in and out of the car without waking her, but didn't want to spend loads of money on a capsule when they are out of them in 6 months.
We then put her in a reversible seat and kept her facing backwards for as long as possible.
We went the car seat option over a capsule. In hindsight the capsule would have been good at times, like for those quick dash-in, dash-out trips, or those times in wet weather where I was standing in the rain strapping DS in.
i bought a polo capsule and used for DD until she outgrew it at 7 months. I didn't find it particularly useful as its heavy and cumbersome, we primarily bought it due to its high safety rating. we moved her into a compaq and at nearly 3 she still has plenty of room and hopefully should see her to 4.
we used the capsule for DS who outgrew it at about 10 months. This time we found it useful as we could strap him into the capsule inside, then go straight to the car while trying to catch DD who would be running around the front yard. So in those situations I found it easier to walk after her and guide her back to the car if he was in the capsule instead of carrying him and herding a toddler back to the car. if that makes sense.
I have got my capsule out on loan to friends at the moment and by the time i get it back i might hold onto it for future number #3 or might just put them straight into one of the 2 compaqs we have, i am comfortable with this as the compaq rates safety high in the reverse mode
if you need a capsule to use when doing school drop offs that sort of thing, i wouldnt worry if you baby wear, if you do, no need for a capsule, if you don't babywear then i can see having a capsule that clips into a pram would be very handy
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