I so understand how you feel. Kids that you love but did not plan and you're doing the best you can, and at every turn it seems like someone is telling you how you could be doing something better, whether its breast feeding, cloth diapers, bumperless crib bedding, or whatever the craze of the moment happens to be. But I promise you, that’s not what’s going on here. The women and men of this board are honestly just trying to give you the best advice they can given the circumstances you presented. So after reading through this thread, these are the key points that I have picked up on: you hate your car and you want to replace it and you have a 5,000 budget, great, that’s a good budget to start with. You need to make a 3 across work and you have a $200 budget on that, again, that’s a very healthy budget to work with. So this is what I would do -- you can get a GREAT infant bucket for under $100 (a base model snugride or an evenflo comes to mind) and then get 2 $40 dollar Cosco Sceneras. That would bring you in under your $200 budget. Then, I would be looking at Impalas. I know you prefer a SUV, but if you are financing the car and want it to last, you can get a lot more for your money if you get a sedan with a big back seat and the Impala is huge. You could easily get those 3 seats 3 across I believe (although I've never done it personally, one of the techs can chime in if I’m giving bad advice). It makes way more sense, at least to me, to spend the $200 on narrower seats for your twins than to spend that much all on an infant bucket. Plus, as others have stated, you can sell your Chases, and pass down the Scenera's to the new baby. The Scenera's also have the added bonus of converting RF or FF. As for everyone encouraging you to rear face even though you didn't ask about it, I think a lot of that comes from most people who come on this board to ask questions just don't know how much safer it is. I was one of those mothers, I turned my oldest daughter around at 18 months because that’s what people did, and I never questioned it. I WISH I had found this board back then. People are just trying to give you the best information there is, without passing judgment. It really is that important. This isn't one of those hyper dramatic mommy war crazes, this is literally the difference between your child walking out of a crash without a scratch, and having their skull ripped off their spine by brute force. I have a real life example: My 2 step children were in a crash with my husband and his then wife, one was 13 months and one was 2 months, 13 month old was forward facing and the baby was RF, the baby walked away without a scratch and the toddler crushed her neck and had to have reconstructive surgery that involved having to remove her ribs to rebuild her vertebral column. If you get the scenera's, you can just try to flip them, and see what they do. You never know, they might love it, a lot of kids find it more comfy, and it can't hurt to try. Plus, it will be easier to get your needed 3 across that way. Again, I can not stress enough that no one is judging you even though it might feel that way, we're honestly just trying to help out a mother who obviously adores her kids or she wouldn't be here in the first place trying to figure out what’s best for them.
he was 11lbs at birth and yes he has a flower car seat. I have a Toyota corolla. Kids are way more flexible than us!
