baby seat set ups with 3 in 5 points & 1 in a booster still......
Ok after opinions here.
With Baby number 5 due in april, I am thinking of seating options in the car.
Currently I have 2yr old & 4 yr old in 5 point harnessed seats. 6 yr old in full back booster with adult belt & 8 yr old just on the seat.
I had it all planned in my head to have this baby in a capsule in the middle of the middle row of seats with 8yr old & possibly 6 yr old either side. then 2yr & 4 yr old on the back row (as they already are).
My idea with the capsule was so I could have baby rear facing for as long as possible (over 12 months) by getting the SnS unity capsule which goes to 12kg. My last boy was 9lb 9oz & I am expecting another boy & preparing for another biggy (I know its not a given, I am just assuming). BUT in saying that my kids have all followed a similar pattern in growth & hit the 10kg makr by 6/7 months & then stay around that till about 18 months. So I fully expect I will be able to use the capsule for over 12 months with the weight being up to 12kg.
My thought was, with the 2 littler kids needing to be buckled up still, I could put baby in the capsule while not in the car. Place capsule on the ground etc while I buckle the older 2 in & then older boys can get into seats, put on seat belts & then I can put in capsule & away we go. Reverse the process when we get to the destination. I am thinking this as I would like baby to be in the middle. Being in the middle rear facing while mean the kids/myself will have to climb around the read facing seat, but if its a capsule I can wait till everyone one is in & buckled before putting the capsule in. Follow what I mean? I also figure with the baby safely already buckled into the capsule, I wont have to worry about children running around the car or fumbling around while holding a baby which sorting out the others.
I don't plan on using the capsule to transport bubs around the place other then from house to car to house & possibly at school pick ups as the boys school is crazy busy & has really poor parking so I often have to park a mile away & walk to collect the boys(Although I am looking into getting them to catch the bus home in the afternoons or using the kiss & go zone, but they are only new to the school & unsure about where they have to be to use these options just yet & with Evans anxiety, it may not ever eventuate for him, getting lost is a big issue for him atm so I don't want to push it just yet)
SOOOOO What do you think, is the capsule a good idea or should I just use the rear to forward facing seat (which is also rear to 12kg) & have everyone move around it?
See I already own that seat, but not the capsule which I have found online for $270 inc postage. But what if I don't like the fit int he car, or have issues with it & need to return it? But if I buy direct from a baby store here its $100 more. Also im not sure even if 6yr olds booster will sit next to it with easy access to do his seat belt up so I possibly also like to put the 3 middle kids across the back which means buying a more compact 5 point seat for someone to fit in the middle (see my car only has lap belts in the middle so to use those belts it needs to be with a 5 point seat that doesn't need the shoulder bit to restrain the child kwim? I could buy a H harness but not keen on those)
We had a capsule and recently had to upgrade to a convertible car seat so that Connor could stay rear facing....the capsule went to 12 kilos and he was around the 9 kilo mark but outgrew it length wise.....I think the max height for the capsules is around 70cms or a just a bit over that. So to keep him rearfacing we have had to get the convertible seat which he can stay rear facing in height wise for much longer...he is 9.5 kilos at 12 months and 75cms and height/weight wise might even get to 2 years before turning.
So knowing what happened to us, if you don't intend to use the capsule as a travel system I probably wouldn't buy one... if you want to rear face till the maximum weight you will still need a second seat down the track.....unless you have short kids, in which case the capsule might work.
hmm it is the height thing & the weight of the capsule itself that is making me re think it all. My kids have all been on the slightly above average for height. I mean both me & DH have height behind us so Im not expecting to many short genes LOL...
Might have a play with the rear facing seat tomorrow & see just how it all sits before I make up my mind. For all I know it will either fit perfectly with no issue at all with getting around it or it wont work at all & I will have to rethink the whole thing!!
yeah it is all a bit of a jigsaw puzzle I imagine, fitting them all in!
The new tilt and adjust meridian seat apparently has quite a high height limit rearfacing if extended rear facing is really important to you...the head rest has heaps of adjustments unlike the three or so on the older model car seats, I have the platinum tilt and adjust so same adjustments....Connor could stay reafacing for ages...our problem will be we have a small car so it has had to go behind the passenger seat with the passenger seat fully forward...if he grows too much more the person in the front seat will be sitting on the bonnet! LOL!
Could you put the baby in the backseat with 4yr old, and 2yr in the middle, in the middle? It would mean noone had to try and get around the baby seat in the middle row, because it would be an upright car seat, not laying down?
We are trying to sort our car out too!!!
We'll have a 2yr, 3yr and 4 yr, and newborn.. so 4 car seats!! Plus the 3 big kids.....
We are putting the baby, 2yr and 3 yr across the back seat.. and the 4 yr booster in the middle row, in the middle.. so when we have 2 big kids as well, they just jump in each side...
I use a sling, so will sling bubba, put all the kids in, then baby last.... and when getting out, baby first in sling, then the others....
Its all sounding so complicated... I think I need the big old van back... we wont even fit in this car now, so we'll have to take two when we all go somewhere together!!
I only had three kid to contend with in my car and used the unity capsule, dd stayed in till 21 months and 10.5kg and about 80cm. She only game out because she is an escape artist and figured out she could hold her shoulders in and get leverage with her feet to push herself out of the harness.
I had her behind driver, middle seat was for my 7yr old no child seat and my 5yr old in her maxirider. The base is quiet easy for people to climb over.
I brought it for my last and absolutey loved it. Especially for school drop off and pick up.
Is there a shop close to you that sells them and you can go and try it out and see if it does all fit in and then it will just be the height issue that you need to think about. When we were trying to work out the configuration of car seats for this new bub Baby Bunting down here were really helpful with it all and gave us some option and ideas on car seats that we hadn't thought of.
I called my g/f, who used one like the one you want.. she couldnt use it after about 6 months, it was too heavy with bub in it to carry it in and out all the time.. she had to get it up into a bigish car though...Maybe go into a shop and play with one first??
With the other kids to take with you, it might be really hard to use??
Im interested to hear about this too! we are tossing up the capsule versus convertable carseat too. What car did you end up getting Effjay? We are still looking at cars, we dont want 3 kids in a row though we are going to put our 5yr old in the back seat with booster.
My thought was the same as Boo Boo. Head down to your nearest Baby Bunting or similar and check them out before buying online. They will normally let you check the seat fits into your car and play around with the seats and capsule placement.
Also, can't hurt to take the online price in and see if they will match it.
Sns unity was THE worst baby thing I bought this time round! I would highly advise against it generally, but it has the worst safety rating in the latest round of testing, mine has actually stopped clicking in and out after only 9 1/2 months and it is sooo freaking heavy! Ds also gets incredibly hot in there. The one thing that really stood out for me was that you want to lift it out to do school pick ups, I used to do this for my nephew and had to park miles away and carry the capsule and it was absolute hell! After the second time I ended up just carrying ds it was so bad. Also, it was too heavy to carry with ds as a newborn and stitches, so was pretty useless then as well!
I would recommend hiring the standard capsule and getting a reversible car seat for once your new bub grows out of it, and I would put it next to your 8 yo so you can get them to help you click it in and out, for putting the dummy back in when driving and to remind you when you are so sleep deprived you forgot to put the strap on across the top
I bought a new one assuming we would be able to sell it once we had finished with it and it wouldn't really be all that expensive, but there is no way we could do that
Appletree, in which testing did the capsule score the worst safety rating? The ICEP testing I looked at scored it the highest safety rating for a baby under 9kgs. I bought one based on this! If other reputable testing has shown a poor result I would really like to look at it. You should contact S&S (Britax) if your seat is buggered, they will most likely replace it for you (even if you don't want to use it you will have a new one to sell!).
I don't use my capsule to carry bub around in, it really is VERY heavy and not ergonomic. I only use it because it was the safest car seat for a bub in the test results I read.
Thanks for all the replies.. I am thinking I will just use the convertable seat now..
Baby Buntings is who has the unity on sale online, we only have 2 stores up here that have the unity, 1 doesn't keep them in stock & would need to order it in & the other I haven't bothered going over to yet as I know I can get it for a better price online.
I don't want to put the baby in the back row, its too far away for my comfort & my idea was having the 8yr old as my extra hands while driving.
*Belle* I ended up getting a toyota Hiace supercustom which is am import.
Might go fiddle now with the seats & see how it goes.
I have my three 5 point harnesses along the middle seats (two forward facing on either sit and rear facing in the middle) and my 8 and 10 year olds sit in the back.
It might be different because it is not a van and it has side doors.
NIckle here is the link to the 2010 CREP testing which is generally accepted to be the national standard for car seat ratings....the Unity has dropped to one star, which is the lowest rating possible.
And appletree deifintely contact Britax, they have excellent customer service and I would imagine replace your faulty car seat, giving you a nice new one to pop on ebay!!!!
Nickle, I will do a search for you, a friend on another forum is a car seat safety nut and she linked to it. I'm on my iPhone now though so am having trouble bringing it back up sorry!
Thanks for the advice on contacting britax! I never thought of that, I was going to take it back to babies galore but then they closed down so figured I was screwed!
Bugger.... My rear facing wont sit next to the 6r olds booster in the middle row...
Problem I have with the middle row is I can't put a anchored seat on the passenger side as thats my flip forward seat to get to the back row (and there is no point for that seat)
I have a crab bar with 3 points for the back row & then driver & middle seats have points for the middle row.
So I will go pick up the seat I have on layby that is meant to be good for 3 across the back & hope I can configure that some how. I should be able to make it fit if i put the 2 yr old or maybe the 4yr old (depending on behaviour LOL) next to the baby instead & have the baby on the driver side as much as I would prefer not too but it just sits out too far to have a needing to be buckled child on the other side of it. They would have trouble getting past it & I would be able to at all.. I have a few options still up my sleeve I think. But hopefully it doesn't mean buying another booster thats more narrow to fit the 6 yr old as I really shouldn't need him on a high back for much longer.. Gah...
I guess though if I was prepared to pay $370 for the unity & im not going to, then I still have a little bit to play with to make sure everyone is in & safe...
Glad I looked now & not a week before the birth!
eta - Oh forgot to say before, I wil be baby wearing also which I didn't think of when thinking about how to buckle everyone in while holding bub LOL derrrr
baby seat set ups with 3 in 5 points & 1 in a booster still......
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