New Here

[allilew]

As a member of another board, I know that we like it when newbies do an intro, so here I go!

My name is Allison. I am currently 27 weeks pregnant with my first child -- a girl who is supposedly making her grand entrance on or around March 13th. My husband was (not so) secretly hoping for a boy so he would have a partner in crime, but I told him that girls can do everything boys can do and will even hug you afterwards.

I am currently addicted to baby bargains -- both the book and actual real-life bargains on baby gear. Being that this is our first child, we need quite a bit of stuff, but I've been pretty successful in finding gently used baby gear -- swing, bouncy seat, Bumbo, etc. This way, if she hates it, it's not a huge loss.

My current dilemma is the classic: infant seat or convertible seat from the get-go? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks for having me!

[Marisa6826]

Welcome Allison! I'm pretty partial to girls, myself, being that I have two of them.

I did the infant seat because both my kiddos were on the smaller size, and I also wanted to be able to have something that, well, I'd be able to carry them in other than the stroller. I live in NJ, where it's cold 3-4m of the year, so I needed to have them pretty bundled (they're December babies). I just couldn't fathom having newborns in snowsuits, carrying them down a sidewalk to the car to put in a giant Britax, kwim?

Anyway, I didn't have my kiddos in their Britaxes until about 5 or 6m, so I got my money's worth out of the "baby bucket".

Hope that answers your question a bit. Definitely check out the car seat forum. Lots of good people there.

-m

[tylersmama]

Welcome! I'm a slacker, I never did an official intro...just kind of weaseled my way in.

DS was in his infant seat until almost 10 months, and didn't really outgrow it...I had already bought the convertible and was getting tired of hauling around the infant seat, so I went ahead and switched him over. Unless you have an exceptionally large baby, you'll get decent usage out of an infant seat, and I really think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks!

Looking forward to "seeing" you around the boards!

[JoyNChrist]

Welcome Allison!

(And again, I'm SO sorry for questioning you on your stroller bargain post...you were so nice about it!)

Anyway, I'm one who did the convertible seat from birth. Well, we actually had a Snugride for like the first 2 weeks, but then we went straight to our Britax Boulevard and couldn't be happier.

One "con" you'll hear people mention about using the convertible instead of the infant seat is that you'll have to wake up a sleeping baby when you take them out of the convertible to go inside. This was never a problem for us, because DS rarely sleeps in the carseat, and when he does he's usually sleeping deeply enough that he doesn't wake up.

I haven't missed the infant seat, but I will tell you this - if you go straight to the convertible you absolutely MUST have some sort of baby carrier (I recommend a pouch). Otherwise, grocery shopping and things like that will be nearly impossible.

Good to have you here - you're gonna love it!