What to do - new car? new seat?

[KrisM]

Okay, I finally had time to get back to trying to squish 3 seats in my Malibu Maxx. I own:

Baby Trend Latch Loc (2003 version)
2 Britax Boulevards
1 Britax Wizard
1 Cosco Scenara
1 Radian

DS is FF and DD is currently RF, but is 30 lbs already and will be 2 in June. Baby comes in July.

I finally managed to get the RN installed in the center with a seatbelt. So, I tried the following:

1. BT driver, RN in middle, BV passenger. BT does not fit - the bucket interferes with where the RN flares out at about stomach level.

2. RN driver, BT middle, BV passenger. Again, RN and BT do not work next to each other.

3. RN driver, BV middle, BT passenger. BV and BT do not fit at all. Lots of interference.

4. RN driver, BV FF middle, BT passenger. BV and BT again interfere.

5 and 6. Repeat of 3 and 4 with Scenara instead. RN and Scenara interfere badly. Scenara and BT barely fit, but they do seem to.

7. BV FF driver, RN middle, BV RF passenger. This seems to work. The FF BV and RN are pretty tight against each other and the BV seems to be in the way of the kid in the RN, but we'll see tomorrow. I still need to uninstall the RN to make sure that the FF BV is really in tightly on its own, too.

So, I can put the baby in the BV and FF DD. I'm okay with DD being FFing, because she'll probably hit 33 lbs pretty soon as it is. When the baby is about 6 weeks old though, DS goes back to preschool, which means in-and-out of the car 3 days a week. I'd so much rather have him/her in an infant carrier.

Anything super narrow (infant seat) that I can try?? Any inexpensive car that more easily holds 3 seats?

[jjordan]

I've heard that the BV is not good for newborns so I think you'd be better off with an infant seat anyway. Maybe try two radians and an infant seat? Hopefully someone will have a suggestion for a narrow infant seat. I think there is one out there (Combi Centre maybe? or the new version of that) that is supposed to be narrow.

Good luck!

Jill

[Joolsplus2]

BT without the base? Combi Centre or Shuttle? (Admittedly, I didn't thoroughly read your post yet, I need more coffee first... :ROTFLMAO: )

[KrisM]

BT without the base? Combi Centre or Shuttle? (Admittedly, I didn't thoroughly read your post yet, I need more coffee first... :ROTFLMAO: )

Will look into Combi Centre and see. I did realize today that I didn't try the BT on the passenger side with the RN in the middle. It might work because my seats slide front-to-back and I might be able to avoid the interference problem. We'll try again tonight, I hope.

I can't imagine installing the BT without the base every time. Maybe if no seat was next to it, but getting to the seat belt is not easy.

[KrisM]

Okay, I finally had time to get back to trying to squish 3 seats in my Malibu Maxx. I own:

Baby Trend Latch Loc (2003 version)
2 Britax Boulevards
1 Britax Wizard
1 Cosco Scenara
1 Radian

DS is FF and DD is currently RF, but is 30 lbs already and will be 2 in June. Baby comes in July.

I finally managed to get the RN installed in the center with a seatbelt. So, I tried the following:

1. BT driver, RN in middle, BV passenger. BT does not fit - the bucket interferes with where the RN flares out at about stomach level.

2. RN driver, BT middle, BV passenger. Again, RN and BT do not work next to each other.

3. RN driver, BV middle, BT passenger. BV and BT do not fit at all. Lots of interference.

4. RN driver, BV FF middle, BT passenger. BV and BT again interfere.

5 and 6. Repeat of 3 and 4 with Scenara instead. RN and Scenara interfere badly. Scenara and BT barely fit, but they do seem to.

7. BV FF driver, RN middle, BV RF passenger. This seems to work. The FF BV and RN are pretty tight against each other and the BV seems to be in the way of the kid in the RN, but we'll see tomorrow. I still need to uninstall the RN to make sure that the FF BV is really in tightly on its own, too.

So, I can put the baby in the BV and FF DD. I'm okay with DD being FFing, because she'll probably hit 33 lbs pretty soon as it is. When the baby is about 6 weeks old though, DS goes back to preschool, which means in-and-out of the car 3 days a week. I'd so much rather have him/her in an infant carrier.

Anything super narrow (infant seat) that I can try?? Any inexpensive car that more easily holds 3 seats?

I did uninstall the RN and the BV is in good. I'm happy. It's tight and it's crowded but 3-across do fit.

For kicks, I got a second RN and tried it in place of the FFing BV. It doesn't even come close to fitting. I can't even close the car door without hitting the seat. I was surprised.

Now, I just need a trip to BRU to measure infant carriers and try to get one to fit in my car.