will a newborn fit in a marathon?

[melrose7]

I am asking this for a friend since I have already have done my car seat research a couple years ago for my own DC and feel a little out of the loop since things are always changing in the car seat world. She has a infant seat from some relatives (an evenflo that expires in dec) and will need car seats in both cars for daycare pickups. So she decided to get (register for) 2 marathons. So she will have the infant seat in her car and DH will have one marathon in his car. Then she will have the other marathon when he/she outgrows the infant seat. Since she has no idea about any of this i am trying to help her but I am not certain how a newborn will fit in the marathon. I have one but DD is still in a RA. they have a passat and a honda pilot for fit issues. i know the seats says good from 8lbs? and up but how well does a marathon recline? they would use that seat at about 10 weeks old. she did consider getting a infant seat but then she would need another base as well. that is a lot of car seat buying. is this going to work or do you think that she should really have another infant seat (or a different convertable seat). She is due in april.
TIA

becky

[bubbaray]

Yup, a newborn fits fine, though an infant seat is an easier and more convenient fit for the first while. The MA recline is fine, especially using the RFg tether. She can take the hugs (plastic thingys on the harness) off for RFg, helps get a better fit. Tell her to MAKE SURE to put the hugs in the pocket on the top rear of the cover because they are mandatory for using the MA FFg. The velour harness covers can stay on, they help to keep the harness off the baby's skin when you are adjusting the harness.

Both my girls hated the infant buckets, but they are suuuuure convenient when you have a sleeping baby.... I'd consider getting an extra base if it were me. I was all gung-ho to use our MA from birth with DD#2 and she just looked so teeny in it (she was 8lbs 6oz and not teeny at all) that we were glad we had kept the infant seat. Also, the hospital might give your friend grief is she d/n use the infant seat to leave the hospital.

HTH

[o_mom]

I really didn't care for the fit of the DC on DS3 at birth. I tried him in it at about 3 days old (8 lbs 7 oz, 21") and the straps were above his ears and over an inch above his shoulders. I don't know that it was radically unsafe, but since I had an infant seat I was not going to use it anyway.

At 10 weeks old, it was just fine. We actually used it on a trip at 12 weeks old and he fit in it just fine. Straps were still above his shoulder, but only about 1/2" which is within Britax's guideline that they not be more than an inch above. If they are not planning on using it until 10 weeks I don't think there would be any problem. Getting a good recline with the MA is the only potential problem I can see.

[melrose7]

Thanks. She does have an infant seat to use going home from the hospital (a borrowed evenflo) but i did tell her the convenence of have a portable baby. It was something that i know I wanted and she's won't know about moving a sleeping baby until she faces it. So they can at least use that in one car till the baby outgrowns it (probably 4 months since it only goes to 26") and have one MA in the other car. I just wanted to make sure a 2 month old would work in a MA if the recline is fine.

[daniele_ut]

Is there any reason they can't just both use the infant seat for their cars? We always left the infant seat with the baby and just popped it into whichever car picked him up. All of the infant moms at ds's current daycare do the same thing. That's part of the great convenience of an infant seat!