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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Convertible Carseat Recs????
Well, we're almost at the next stage. DS will be 1 in July and almost the weight to move on. What seat would you recommend? what to look out for? any deals anywhere? any other advice??? it's been so long since i've researched this stuff, i feel like a newcomer!! ha.
What does the new baby bargains suggest? i have the old version.
TIA!!!!!!
****My boys....****
Re: Convertible Carseat Recs????
I don't have the book in front of me, but I can tell you what I researched and decided on. I researched Baby Bargains, people's opinions, and from someone I know who is certified in car seat safety. I just bought his convertible seat a little over a month ago. It's a Britax Decathalon. It was either that or the Marathon. I chose the Dec. because it has extra padding and the button/crotch adjuster. It's about a $15 difference between the Marathon and Decathalon. After installing it and getting Will in it, we realized the crotch had to be on the farthest setting (he was 18 pounds at the time) so we didn't even need that feature. Looking back I'd probably just buy the Marathon- no need to spend the extra money, but I do like how the Dec. look over the Marathons. The Roundabout isn't usable after 40 pounds, forward-facing. The Marathon and Dec. go till 65 pounds I think so we should definitely get our money's worth!!! You also have to think about what age a kid will be when they come close to or reach 65 pounds. I think I read it was something like 10 years old!! As you know car seats are only good for 5 years. Plus what 10 year old is going to be using a car seat? Ha, ha!! We bought ours at BRU since we had left over gift cards to use. I know that the Marathon was just on sale at Target a couple of weeks ago for $229. That's about $40 off. Overall I'm very happy with our purchase and will do it again for the next kid. The only thing I don't like is that the straps twist all the time. One of the Britax's don't twist (can't remember which one) and I remembering reading about how much people hated it on car seats and didn't realize the truth to that until now. Oh well, it's still worth it!
Good luck in your search!
Hi Amy,
We have the Britax Boulevard in both our cars and we really like it. Its received the highest safety ratings and DS is totally comfortable. It is big, but we have no problem fitting in our Altima and having plenty of room for the person in the passenger seat in front to have the seat pushed back far.
There's extra side impact protection on the Boulevard which isn't available on the other Britax seats. Personally we spared no expense on the car seat as that is something that is very important to me.
Also, you don't ever have to move the straps, when DS gets taller, you just have to turn the knob and it automatically raises/lowers the shoulder straps.
We bought one from BRU and one from E-bay. The one at BRU was $299 and the one from e-bay was $230 (I think).
HTH! Laura
i also have the britax marathon and love it. no complaints at all. they are pricey but worth it. we will get another one when the next baby gets here. we have an evenflo too (forgot the name) and my husband complains about it all the time - he wants a britax for his car too. good luck!
i checked and we have the evenflo triumph dlx. i like it because the straps are the grow with you straps. the old evenflo triumph's got a bad rap but this one is nice. it is about $140. they fixed the quirks that the olds one had - bad strap design and the knobs you adjust the straps with were hard to turn.
You can't go wrong with Britax. Here's what Baby Bargains says:
Good: Graco ComfortSport
Better: Sunshine Kids Radian 65
Best: Tie between the Britax Roundabout and Britax Marathon
The Roundabout holds up to 40 pounds and the Marathon holds up to 65 pounds. They say in the book that while it may seem like an obvious choice to go with the Marathon, keep in mind that the Marathon is 3 inches taller and 1.5 inches wider than the already big Roundabout, that makes fitting in smaller vehicles a challenge. Although, the Marathon is a good bet if you have a big baby.
Finally, if money is no option, they recommend the Britax Boulevard or the SafeGuard Child Seat.
We just moved Ella to the Marathon. ?We ordered ours at Kangaroo Kids (brand new) and I think it was like $250ish. ?We have a Volvo S40 (not a huge car) so we made sure to try it out in the back seat to make sure it would fit the correct way before getting that seat...it isn't tiny! ?
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We decided on the Marathon over the Boulevard (w/ the extra side impact stuff) for a couple of reasons. ?I didn't know about the easily adjustable height thing, though! ?
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Ella loves being in her "big girl" seat now, she can see out the windows much better and she doesn't fight getting into her carseat.
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Good luck choosing a new seat!?
Thank you so much for your recommendations!! I actually just won 2 auctions on ebay (oh well, we needed 2 anyway! ha). I got a Britax Marathon and a Britax Roundabout. I remember reading that the Marathon was a little bigger, so i thought if it didnt' fit well in my car, I'm sure it will fit in DH's Jeep Cherokee. I ended up getting for a good price, but paid a lot of shipping so i probably am spending about the same as what I would have paid in the store (w/o tax), but they'll be shipped to my front door and that's always a plus! :-)
Thanks again for your opinions and I hope they work out!!