Two kids close in age - what to do?

[jecca]

I have two beautiful babies adopted from Guatemala who are 18 mos (DS) and 9 mos (DD). Our DD just came home a month ago, and has been riding in the Graco Safeseat we used with our son, and will remain in it for a long time yet. She's itty bitty at about 16lbs (5th percentile, but growing steadily).

DS is also small (25th percentile) and is riding in an Evenflo Triumph, which I do like. What I don't like, though, is that he's going to outgrow it long before he would have a Britax MA, and I now regret not biting the bullet on the MA.

I'm starting to think about what to do when DD outgrows the Safeseat even though it probably won't be for many months (DS outgrew it at 14 months and she's way smaller than he was at this age). Should I buy her an MA and keep DS in the Triumph? Buy DS a Regent and move DD to the Triumph? I think DS will be small for such a big seat, but still within the size reqs.

I think eventually, I'm going to end up with Regents for both, but I want to figure out the cheapest way to get to that point. If the Safeseat goes up the 30lbs, is it out of the question to move straight to a Regent?

Thanks for any input.

-Jessica.

[KrisM]

If you DS is also small, he might still be able to rear-face when DD outgrows the Safeseat. If so, you'd want a Marathon or similar. I'd probably buy him the Marathon and move her to the Triumph. Then, when someone outgrows their seat, you can look at the Regent or other bigger seats. I don't think the Regent will be as comfy for your DS when he's still small.

As far as going from the Safeseat to the Regent - I wouldn't do it just for comfort wise. DS is 33 lbs and is 3 years old and he still has so much room to grow in his Boulevard that I can't even imagine him in a Regent yet.

My friend's son is large and outgrew his Marathon at 22 months. He's in a Regent and is finally looking the right size for it! He's just over 3 and is about 46" and 48lbs.

[o_mom]

You DD will probably outgrow the SafeSeat before 30 lbs. Most kids outgrow it on height well before 30 lbs. DS2 was too tall at 21-22 months but only 24 lbs. He is still rear-facing in a Roundabout and will move to the MA when he is too tall for that.

You want to keep a couple things in mind with the next seat. It is safest for them to be rear-facing as long as possible. The Regent won't rear-face at all. The Triumph does, but only to 30 lbs and is fairly short so is outgrown rear-facing much sooner than other seats. I'm not sure how much longer the Triumph will last rear-facing afte the Safeseat, but I would certainly plan that DD is going to use the Triumph (or another convertible) at some point and not go straight from the SafeSeat to the Regent.

Second thing is that the Regent will expire in 6 years. So, if you get one 9 months from now, your DS will be 8 when it is outgrown. Keep that in mind so you don't have seats expiring before you are done with them.