Infant Seat vs. Convertible.. can't decide.

Can someone help me decide?

I'm expecting #3 in September. He or she will be in the center. DD1 will be outboard behind the passenger in a HB Turbo. DD2 will be RF behind the passenger in her Radian. The two older children HAVE to be in those positions.

The only convertible seat I'll go for is the Radian RXT because it is narrow (hello 3 across on a narrow back seat!) and because of its longevity. I would go with a MyRide but the angle my radian is at currently doesn't play well with the MyRide so it's out until DD2 can be FFing.

The infant seat I'm looking at is the Combi Shuttle 33. It will fit. You can leave the handle up And it has a pretty tall shell.

Also, with baby being born in September, he or she will still be itty bitty through the winter months. He or she will be 5 months old once spring hits and the weather stops being bitter cold. At that point I could turn DD2 FFing in her Radian (she'd be 3y3m, I'm OK with that) and put the baby in a convertible in the center RFing (in a MyRide perhaps, because of what I mentioned before).

There is no telling how tall this baby will be, or how their growth curve will pan out. DD1 had a 15" torso at 13 months! She's now 4 and is over the top slots of the Radian. She outgrew the original snugride at 3 months of age. Had the Shuttle 33 been out back then, we'd be able to have kept her in an infant seat for at least 1 year!

DD1 is currently 2y2m old with a 13.5" torso height, and an overall seating height of 20.5" and is 25lbs... she'd still (but barely) fit in the Shuttle 33!

It could really go either way. DD1 was formula fed and DD2 was breastfed... I've heard that they are like two different "animals" and thus will follow a different growth curve (with breastfed children being overall smaller than their formula fed counterparts) but I don't know how true that is! I do plan on exclusively breastfeeding though.

Thoughts?


ETA: also, the shuttle 33 isn't compatible with our stroller, but I don't like using infant seats as being "baby holders" out of the car anyways. It's moreso for the ease of buckling baby inside the house, then just reaching over to snap the seat into the base. With the Radian, I'd have to take the booster out (or sit in it haha) and buckle baby into the middle, while DD1 waits. Not a huge deal because I'm a SAHM and DH is always with me (I don't drive!). I guess she could sit in the cargo area until baby is buckled?


WWYD?

I would use the bucket. One less kid to strap in out in the cold. also when taking the baby out you can have him/her all bundled in the seat. It just seem like it would be alot easier.

Also I would look at the shuttle 35...the only difference is the buckles are not a puzzle buckle anymore

I would do the bucket because I think it would be very difficult/awkward to reach over another seat to buckle baby in the middle.

eyeslkethesky5391 said:

Also I would look at the shuttle 35...the only difference is the buckles are not a puzzle buckle anymore

Click to expand...

Where can I find the Shuttle 35? Is it out yet?

It's in-store at BRU at least.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12319207&prodFindSrc=search

Its a BRU

Thanks! Are the dimensions the same? Shell height, strap height, etc? Did they just make a new one exactly the same and test it to a higher weight?

I'm thinking those 2lbs don't matter too much.. I don't mind the puzzle buckle (is it like the CCO?) The 33 is cheaper so I might go for that... any reason I shouldn't?

I just wanted to add in that I had those exact seats in my car for a short while. We had the radian behind the driver, the HBTB in the middle and the Shuttle behind the passenger in my '08 Malibu. Because of the shape of the infant seat base, it was easy to buckle the booster rider and THEN put the infant seat in its base. The only thing I didn't like about the Shuttle was that it was a little difficult to snap into the base and also to get it out, but you get used to it. I just didn't feel overly confident about grandparents using it, etc. Once I put it in my father-in-law's car, baby in and all, and he was supposed to bring the baby to my mom's. Well, when they got there, they had to uninstall the whole base and everything. Between three grandparents, they could not figure out how to get the seat out of its base.

And yes the puzzle buckle is exactly like the CCO. We moved to the CCO after the shuttle and that worked, too.

Thanks Kelley! Good to know about buckling the TB. We're booster training DD now (she is doing perfect! I'm so shocked!) and moved the Radian to the middle to see how buckling would go if I were to get another Radian... oh man, lol. It's not easy!

My trick is to pull the booster a few inches off of the seat (towards me, towards the door) before buckling, buckle, move booster (and DD in it!) back to its place, and remove the slack from the belt. Do the same but in reverse when unbuckling- so add slack to the belt to give me room to pull it over, then unbuckle, then etc. We also have a "hands on your head" rule for when I'm trying to find the female end of the buckle Elbows in the way are not my thing!