Forward facing!

It's official. My daughter has tipped past 45 lbs when she's fully dressed with her rain boots on.

We went to dinner last night right after I flipped her seat. A friend was with us so I rode in the back with her. Here's our selfie.

"Dad, why are we stopped? Dad! Go! The light is green! Go!"

And so it begins...

This isn't her first FF ride, since she has been too big to RF in "normal" seats since she turned 3, but today is her first day of full time FFing.

*sigh*

Now... shoulder room is at a premium in my 2005 Civic. I'm not "leaning in" in the photo; it really is just that squished. Any chance I'll have any better luck with a different seat? My current arsinal consists of a Radian 80SL (pictured), a Radian RXT, a CA65, and a FR85.

I have two adult sons, one of whom still lives at home. So I really hesitate to move her outboard and turn my Civic into a 4-passenger car (no head restraint and no leg room in the center so you really can't put an adult there).

Advice? Will the CA be more comfortable to sit next to, maybe? And if I move her outboard, which seat would you put her in? (RXT, CA, or FR85).

DDs Pioneer is passenger outboard in our 2012 Civic. We tried to put it center but the hump in the center seat made it tippy :/ The only other seat that I could comfortably sit next to when it was in the center was the OnSide Air but even that was not super comfortable.

Yeah, I'm thinking I might have to put her outboard. We do have a Suburban so it's not like we don't have a vehicle everyone will fit in. But 35 mpg vs. 14 mpg... yeah.

My Civic is pretty basic, though, with no SIP airbags or anything, so if I need to move her outboard I am going to have to guess which seat (RXT, CA, FR85) offers the best SIP.

The most comfortable FF seat I've sat beside is a MyRide, but that's because you puzzle yourself in behind it LOL. Probably not super safe It's not very tall FF, so probably won't work for you anyhow. I'll try to remember to compare Sureride vs Radian for you when I have a chance.

Keeanh said:

The most comfortable FF seat I've sat beside is a MyRide, but that's because you puzzle yourself in behind it LOL. Probably not super safe It's not very tall FF, so probably won't work for you anyhow. I'll try to remember to compare Sureride vs Radian for you when I have a chance.

Click to expand...

I always felt the same with our FF Marathons (classic style), you could slip your shoulder behind the widest part which gave a little more room. I can't think of any seats like that that would last for a bigger FF kiddo though.

No advice on seats but darn is she cute!

I don't think she'd have sufficient growing room in a MR anyway. She is right at the 2nd to top slots in the Radian (she was a little above them when she was RF). I'm going to move them up to the top slot next time I get it out of the car. She's wearing size 5 and 6 t-shirts.

She was almost too tall to RF in the Radian anyway. Which is one of the main reasons I haven't seriously considered upgrading her to a Foonf. She could probably get to 4 in a Foonf but will run into the height limit and I can't justify that much money for an estimated 6 months of extended use.

I might be able to justify a SureRide, though, if it would be better for an adult to sit next to it. That's not a big expense at all, and I could wait for a good sale, too.

I'm going to try my CA. I think maybe if I take off the LATCH strap it might be OK to sit by (anchor storage is up on the shoulders which will be an issue; and of course I won't be using the lower anchors).

The CA is not an improvement at all, if anything slightly worse. My son says he can live with the available space with the Radian, though. So for now, I've got that in there.

Unfortunately, I had her outside with me while I was shuffling car seats, and she got upset when she saw I put the Radian back in. She wanted her Complete Air instead.

I moved the RXT to the Civic because I thought she might like to have head wings to rest on since she won't be reclined anymore. I put the Frontier 85 in the Suburban, where the RXT had been. The CA will remain "the seat we throw in the pickup truck occasionally" for now, and at the moment the 80SL is attached to a cart and ready to throw into the trunk for our upcoming plane trip.

I also cleaned out my car and organized my trunk. So it's been a productive day.