Question Tall parents expecting twins, convertible seat recommendations?

Hello all -

I've been lurking here for a while reading and taking in all the discussion, but finally decided to solicit advice for our particular situation: my wife and I are expecting twins in the fall, our first children.

We have a 2006 BMW X3 and a 2006 Toyota Prius, and will likely run the kids in the BMW if possible.

For the infant seats, we've pretty much decided on the Chicco KeyFit 30 seats. However, we're not settled on what to buy/register for in terms of the convertible seats.

We plan to follow the new AAP guidelines as best we can and RF as long as possible. We had been considering the Britax Boulevard CS given their reputation and ratings, mostly outside of this board. The RF limit is lower than other seats, but still seems versatile and usable to 65#.

The ERF discussion led me to the Radian, and our X3 has the "stronger" LATCH connectors by date, but in reading, it "seems" that the Radian doesn't seem to fit RF in a lot of cars (maybe only minivans?) in the outboard position, as we'd have to do with twins. We might consider a van once the kids are here, but want to plan with the current cars in case that's not financially feasible.

So that leads to the question: With me being 6'1" and my wife 5'9", we need some seats that fit well without too much cramping up front. It looks like the following come fairly well recommended:

Radian XTSL (hard to fit RF?)
Complete Air
True Fit
My Ride (hard to fit FF?)
Boulevard (lower RF capacity)

Any other taller folks with normal sized cars have success with any of these or other seats? Or, do we just need to bite the proverbial bullet and get a bigger vehicle if the whole family is to be safe and comfy?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Honestly, I suggest you wait until your twins are closer to outgrowing their KeyFits. Depending on when your wife is due and how quickly they grow, it could be a year. If you get the convertibles now, you'll lose a year of life while they sit around collecting dust. Unless you plan to use convertibles from birth in the second vehicle instead of getting extra bases for the KFs? If so, please let us know as that changes convertible recommendations, as you will need convertibles that fit newborns. In addition to losing a year of usable life, new seats may be out on the market in a year.

Of the seats you listed, I think the Complete Air is your best bet. It has the tallest shell, and a 40 lbs. rear-facing capacity, and has the ability to be more upright than the Radians (which you are correct about being more reclined in many cars.) However, you probably don't want to buy/register for it now, as it's likely that your twins will last for at least 9 months or more (maybe even past a year) in the Keyfits, and probably will not fit well in the Complete Air until closer to the time they outgrow the infant seats. In the mean time you'd be wasting the usable life of the seats.

Also, you never know how long they'll last or what else might be on the market by then!

My DH is 6'7 and I am 5'10. When our kids were small, we had Britax Roundabouts in a BMW 525 wagon. I'm not sure, but I think the backseat space is probably similar to the X3 (?). Anyway, those seats worked fine for us, but this was a few years ago and there are lots more options of higher RF seats now. I also tend to agree with Pixels - unless you plan to use them now, wait until your kids outgrow their infant seats.

Good luck with your twins!! The first few months are rough, but it gets better!




ETA: We did eventually trade in the bimmer for a mini-van. It was painful indeed but we needed to be able to fit additional people once in awhile. But I will say, the ease of the remote sliding doors on the minivan made it worth my BMW-withdrawl!

Thanks so much for all the replies! I think it does seem to make sense to wait - I imagine given the new AAP recommendations most of the manufacturers will likely jump on the higher RF limits sooner or later. I think we were focusing on registering and "hoping" we'd get them as gifts since things are a little tight at the moment and twins won't make that any better, but since we're not due until October it should be well over a year before this all will be necessary anyway... Maybe we'll have caved and bought the minivan then, who knows!

Welcome to the board and congrats on the twins. The Keyfit is a great choice for twins who may be born on the small side. I had a thought. Maybe you could save gift cards to use for the seats later.

I am 5'8" and DH is 6'6". Our kids have always been 97%+ for height. My kids are 3 and 5 right now so the rear facing recommendations weren't the same when they were babies. However, I really loved our Roundabouts for the rear-facing time in the cars. It gave lots of room in the front seat and I just loved how the RA's worked. They were awesome seats, in my humble opinion! Now they have the RA 50 -- not sure if the RF limits are increased or not.

FYI, DS was 29 pounds at a year and DD was 27 pounds so the Chicco seat would still be working at a year if your kids are similar sized. However, we had both of them in the RA by 4 months old since the Graco Snugrides back then only went to 27 inches and both were longer than that by the time they were 4 months. You just never know how much they will grow in that first year.

I guess I would wait on buying the convertibles just to see how they do.

I second the waiting idea...but if I had to buy seats today, I'd go with the TrueFit. Its removable headrest makes it great for that newborn recline...my hubby is 6'5" and can comfortably drive in our Impala with that seat behind him without the headrest or more upright with the headrest. He complains about having to move his seat up too much for the MyRide when it is reclined for newborns....but it does fit behind him once its installed as upright as possible for older babies.