What's the next step for us?

[MoJo]

Ha is 3/4" from outgrowing her old-version Snugride. . . and we're getting a tax refund. . . so it's time to go shopping for car seats!

JellyBean is currently riding FF (just turned her around a few weeks ago) in MAs in our '99 Civic and '04 Sonata, and a Scenera in Grandma's '04 Stratus. All thanks to the BBB!:heartbeat:

I'm thinking the best option is to give Ha all of Jelly Bean's seats (RF again, of course) and get new FF-only seats for Jelly Bean. That way, we should be good on seats for several years. We don't plan to have any more kids.

Jelly Bean was almost 34 lbs and (I think) 38" last time I checked. . . . she's a tall thin one, as is her sister. She still falls asleep in the car fairly regularly even though she almost never naps at home.

From what I've read here, I'm guessing the Frontier would be my #1 choice, followed by the Nautilus for our cars. Does that sound right? The Sonata is the primary car they ride in, but the Civic has such little protection that I want great seats there too. I don't have any idea what to look for for Grandma's car; she probably only drives the kids once per month.

Suggestions on what to get/what to look for if I go look at them/where to buy for a good deal are greatly appreciated!

TIA!

[Joolsplus2]

Yeah, for a car sleeper, the Frontier is great. I would feel very comfortable using a less expensive seat in even the Civic (and grandma's), like the Nautilus or Maestro, but if you really want a Frontier for there, there's nothing wrong with that, and it lasts 9 years, so you're good for a looooong time with that one. It even comes in Livia pink now, but I bet only at full price (I don't know any current deals, but if you can get them for around $209, that's comparable to some of the best deals I've seen :))

[MoJo]

Thanks, Jools!

It looks like albeebaby is still running their $209 sale on the Frontier with most of them on back order 'til the end of March. They have the Pink Sky in stock, but my JellyBean prefers the Rushmore for our black car (with a grey interior) and the Canyon for our green car (with a tan interior.) I thought she'd go for the pink. If they had a purple one, that would probably be her favorite.

We can wait on the back order. Worst case scenario, I can put both MAs in one car for a few weeks if I need to do so.

I'm sticking with my two Frontiers thought. She's in the Civic a minimum of once a week, but up to three times a week, and occasionally trips to Grandma's three hours away. Trips in the Civic will only increase if gas prices keep going up, and every trip is at least half an hour at highway speeds. The ability to nap in it alone will be well worth the price!

I'll definitely be looking at a Maestro for grandma's car.

Thanks again!

[Joolsplus2]

If they had a purple one... I'd be out $279 preordering it at full price from any store that sold it... possibly to just leave it in my car for the rest of my natural life :ROTFLMAO:

Your dd is so much more practical :thumbsup:

[Eliz_n_Abi_s_Mommy_Karen]

One thing about the Civic: see how tall the ceiling is. My DD's Nautilus cannot be used at the taller height settings in our Ford Mustang, so I ended up getting something else. Granted, my DD is older than yours, so I got a HBB instead, and that option is less than palatable for you. But if you can't use the Nautilus or Frontier at the full height, you're paying more for overkill in a Civic. (But then again this may all be for naught since the Civic's ceiling may quite possibly be tall enough to accommodate the bigger car seat.)

[MoJo]

LOL, Jools!

Thanks for the heads up, Karen! It just so happens I'm going to BRU to look at strollers today, and DH left me the Civic. . . . so I can check them out in person (if I can manage to wrangle the car seat and both kids, that is.)

This will be my first experience with the bigger car seats. It sounds like you're saying there's something that adjusts that actually makes the car seat bigger?

Off to check car-seat.org for more info on my specific car.

[MoJo]

Car-seat.org didn't have any info on any of the three seats Jools mentioned as far as compatibility with the Civic. Mine's a '99, 4-door. We can't put a RF seat behind the driver, but I didn't realize there could be size issues with the FF seats too.

[Joolsplus2]

I've never really heard of problems with tall boosters in a civic, the roofline is fairly square, and by the time you're getting up to the highest levels of the Frontier, your kid is on the way to middle school, anyway ;)

[MoJo]

In other words, the seat should fit now. . . and God willing, we'll have a new car long before we have a new car seat! :thumbsup:

[MoJo]

My Frontier 85 in Canyon shipped the next day, even though the site said that it was on backorder 'til the end of March. I got it yesterday, and (as I expected with albeebaby) it has a March 2011 DOM!

Jelly Bean loves the cupholders, and already asked if she could sleep in it. I haven't yet successfully installed the seat. Yesterday I was confused by the instruction not to put the seatbelt behind the cover on the long belt path install, but now I'm pretty sure they are saying it needs to go through the cover and all the way behind the seat, not just behind the cover.

So I'm hoping for a successful install this morning!

And, JellyBean has now been asking for a pink car seat for three days. . . so I wrote Albeebaby this morning to see if they can switch the still-backordered Rushmore for the in stock Pink Sky.