catchthewind
New member
Okay, this is a bit premature to be asking and I'm not looking for specific suggestions on car seats yet, but my husband and I were discussing our long term plan for car seats last night and I have a few questions. We're planners, so though I know a lot can change in a year, it's nice to have some idea of the direction we're going, if that makes sense.
My daughter is currently only about 24-25 pounds and rear-facing in a Marathon. She just turned two this month. If she continues along the growth curve, we figure she'll reach 30 pounds (the max on the Marathon) around 3 1/2. We're expecting a new baby in March, and getting an infant seat from my sister-in-law (which we're not positive we'll use yet, but I trust her and we're planning on the fact that we will use it right now). Right around the time the infant seat expires is when my daughter will be outgrowing the Marathon rf. The plan up until I came here and realized there are now a lot of options for rf over 30 pounds has always been to move the baby into her Marathon and move her into a convertible booster at that point.
Now with the higher weight rf seats, I suggested maybe we should buy one of those instead (I'm assuming there will be more choices of 40 pound ones, it's over a year away), put the baby in her Marathon and keep her rear-facing longer. The nice thing about doing it that way is we're not stuck having to turn her even if she hasn't hit 30 pounds yet (which we'd have to do otherwise because the infant seat we're getting expires next December). Then when the baby approached the 30 pound limit of the Marathon we could switch baby to the higher weight limit seat and move her back into the Marathon forward facing (which works well anyway, since the ff limit on the Marathon is higher than the only 40# rf seat here right now anyway). That seems really complicated writing it all out but hopefully it makes sense.
Now money isn't really an object where their safety is a concern. One of the reasons we're planning so far ahead is because we have a savings account for things like that and we make sure there's enough money in it before we'd need it. But of course if it's not a big safety issue, it is definitely a consideration, you know? What my husband was wondering is if we bought another convertible instead, would we be able to skip the convertible booster altogether and once she reached the ff limits of the Marathon go right to a booster or hbb? Or would there be an extra seat in between we'd have to buy? Our first daughter is tall and slim, though most of her height is in her legs so I'm not sure that would affect her fit in a car seat anyway. I know that if the second baby is built quite differently or grows faster/slower that could throw off our plans anyway.
I'm also curious, for you techs, what do you advise parents debating whether to turn a 3 1/2 year old or buy a new seat? What would you do as a parent? We already get comments all the time about the fact that she's still rf (not that I care, I just roll my eyes), I can only imagine what people will say when she's over 3.
Thank you once again for any advice! Sorry for the long post.
ETA: Just curious, are there any threads around here that have a sort of average torso height for various lengths/ages of kids? I tried a search but didn't really find what I was looking for. Looking on the WHO charts my daughter is actually average height, but I have a feeling she has a short torso and is leggy. Her inseam is almost 3" longer than her male cousin's who is the same age.
My daughter is currently only about 24-25 pounds and rear-facing in a Marathon. She just turned two this month. If she continues along the growth curve, we figure she'll reach 30 pounds (the max on the Marathon) around 3 1/2. We're expecting a new baby in March, and getting an infant seat from my sister-in-law (which we're not positive we'll use yet, but I trust her and we're planning on the fact that we will use it right now). Right around the time the infant seat expires is when my daughter will be outgrowing the Marathon rf. The plan up until I came here and realized there are now a lot of options for rf over 30 pounds has always been to move the baby into her Marathon and move her into a convertible booster at that point.
Now with the higher weight rf seats, I suggested maybe we should buy one of those instead (I'm assuming there will be more choices of 40 pound ones, it's over a year away), put the baby in her Marathon and keep her rear-facing longer. The nice thing about doing it that way is we're not stuck having to turn her even if she hasn't hit 30 pounds yet (which we'd have to do otherwise because the infant seat we're getting expires next December). Then when the baby approached the 30 pound limit of the Marathon we could switch baby to the higher weight limit seat and move her back into the Marathon forward facing (which works well anyway, since the ff limit on the Marathon is higher than the only 40# rf seat here right now anyway). That seems really complicated writing it all out but hopefully it makes sense.
Now money isn't really an object where their safety is a concern. One of the reasons we're planning so far ahead is because we have a savings account for things like that and we make sure there's enough money in it before we'd need it. But of course if it's not a big safety issue, it is definitely a consideration, you know? What my husband was wondering is if we bought another convertible instead, would we be able to skip the convertible booster altogether and once she reached the ff limits of the Marathon go right to a booster or hbb? Or would there be an extra seat in between we'd have to buy? Our first daughter is tall and slim, though most of her height is in her legs so I'm not sure that would affect her fit in a car seat anyway. I know that if the second baby is built quite differently or grows faster/slower that could throw off our plans anyway.
I'm also curious, for you techs, what do you advise parents debating whether to turn a 3 1/2 year old or buy a new seat? What would you do as a parent? We already get comments all the time about the fact that she's still rf (not that I care, I just roll my eyes), I can only imagine what people will say when she's over 3.
Thank you once again for any advice! Sorry for the long post.
ETA: Just curious, are there any threads around here that have a sort of average torso height for various lengths/ages of kids? I tried a search but didn't really find what I was looking for. Looking on the WHO charts my daughter is actually average height, but I have a feeling she has a short torso and is leggy. Her inseam is almost 3" longer than her male cousin's who is the same age.
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