THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2007
Rear Facing Carseats
I'm cleaning out my emails, LOL.
Megan is still rear-facing. At first, it was because she was not even 19lbs on her birthday. But staying rear facing for as long as possible can be a life saver. When Huey was less than a year, he was a chubby Buddha baby. Seriously! You'd never know it now, but he was a porker, LOL. The carseat said it went to 20lbs. The general rules out there back then said "20lbs or 1 year" when you turn them around. So we turned him around--which did help with his screaming :) Even though I usually think for myself in most aspects of parenting, I didn't have many options then--a few carseats went to 22lbs rear facing, but that was it. Now, carseats can go up to 30 or 35lbs rear facing!
We needed a new carseat for Megan, one that could go rear facing now, and forward facing as long as possible---until Huey meets the criteria for a regular seatbelt. I had heard a lot of good things about Britax seats, but you can't just go into Wal-Mart and pick one up. So we trodged down to Brampton to the baby safety store for a gate, last September or October, and looked at the seats. They didn't have many--most are at the Mississauga store. The Britax Roundabout was $250, and good rear facing till 33lbs, and forward facing till about 40lbs. It seemed expensive, but we'd be using it for at least 3 years I figured, and it was not that much more than other seats. But we couldn't get it that day.
So a while later, I sent Rob back down. First we looked on the website, and I saw the Marathon that was $300, and goes to 48lbs (the website says 65 lbs, but the guy in the store says Canadian guidelines say 48lbs. I think it would be hard to fit one of our skinny giraffes in it when they reach 65lbs--Huey is just over 50lbs, and I don't think he'd fit in), but he didn't want to spend $300, just for another 8lbs. He called the store, said he wanted to know which of the Roundabouts they had in stock (they come with some great fabrics!). The guy said "All of them" Which was odd, cause they only had one when we were there. So he goes with Lucy.
He comes home, walks in the door, and says "They charged me $300 for it!". I'm like, did you get the Roundabout, or the Marathon--the one you didn't want? Didn't you question why it was so much more than the website said?" No, no questions, Lucy picked out one she liked. He takes it out of the box--it is the Marathon. It is huge. Lucy could be using it still (and if we actually had the other old toddler seat, I'd put Lucy in the Marathon and Megan, rear facing, in the old seat). I said "Did you try it in the truck? That was the whole point of you going by yourself". Nope. It barely fits. It's a battle to get the other seatbelts done up. But Megan loves it. Never complains. Huey wants to keep her rear facing forever--it's very handy having older siblings, LOL.
Megan is still rear-facing. At first, it was because she was not even 19lbs on her birthday. But staying rear facing for as long as possible can be a life saver. When Huey was less than a year, he was a chubby Buddha baby. Seriously! You'd never know it now, but he was a porker, LOL. The carseat said it went to 20lbs. The general rules out there back then said "20lbs or 1 year" when you turn them around. So we turned him around--which did help with his screaming :) Even though I usually think for myself in most aspects of parenting, I didn't have many options then--a few carseats went to 22lbs rear facing, but that was it. Now, carseats can go up to 30 or 35lbs rear facing!
We needed a new carseat for Megan, one that could go rear facing now, and forward facing as long as possible---until Huey meets the criteria for a regular seatbelt. I had heard a lot of good things about Britax seats, but you can't just go into Wal-Mart and pick one up. So we trodged down to Brampton to the baby safety store for a gate, last September or October, and looked at the seats. They didn't have many--most are at the Mississauga store. The Britax Roundabout was $250, and good rear facing till 33lbs, and forward facing till about 40lbs. It seemed expensive, but we'd be using it for at least 3 years I figured, and it was not that much more than other seats. But we couldn't get it that day.
So a while later, I sent Rob back down. First we looked on the website, and I saw the Marathon that was $300, and goes to 48lbs (the website says 65 lbs, but the guy in the store says Canadian guidelines say 48lbs. I think it would be hard to fit one of our skinny giraffes in it when they reach 65lbs--Huey is just over 50lbs, and I don't think he'd fit in), but he didn't want to spend $300, just for another 8lbs. He called the store, said he wanted to know which of the Roundabouts they had in stock (they come with some great fabrics!). The guy said "All of them" Which was odd, cause they only had one when we were there. So he goes with Lucy.
He comes home, walks in the door, and says "They charged me $300 for it!". I'm like, did you get the Roundabout, or the Marathon--the one you didn't want? Didn't you question why it was so much more than the website said?" No, no questions, Lucy picked out one she liked. He takes it out of the box--it is the Marathon. It is huge. Lucy could be using it still (and if we actually had the other old toddler seat, I'd put Lucy in the Marathon and Megan, rear facing, in the old seat). I said "Did you try it in the truck? That was the whole point of you going by yourself". Nope. It barely fits. It's a battle to get the other seatbelts done up. But Megan loves it. Never complains. Huey wants to keep her rear facing forever--it's very handy having older siblings, LOL.
Anyway, if you ever have any carseat questions, or need some reassurance about keeping your 12month + rear facing, check out this website. There's all kinds of neat things, including videos.
And, if you've got a SUV and need more space, check out www.littleseats.com they make 3rd row seats sized for kids!
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