Babble

• For safety reasons it is recommended that you don't put too bulky of clothing on children in carseats because it will make themless effective in a car accident.  With having a  convertible carseat these days, they have made it easy to cover up baby and go.  I received a cover that zips up and has an opening for baby's face that velcros shut which has to be one of the greatest inventions ever.  If it is really cold outside i will throw extra blankets over the top when we are outside.

I realize you wrote this a month ago, but wanted to let you know that if you did decide to skip the bucket and go with a Britax seat a kid in a snowsuit will definitely fit in them easily. We gave up the bucket when my son was 6 mos as he had fully outgrown the weight limit and he went into a Roundabout. My one suggestion would be to consider getting the larger Marathon car seat from the beginning (goes up to 60 lbs) because the Roundabout only goes up to 40 lbs. In hindsight we should have done this as my son grew pretty quickly and Britax seats are expensive at $260 a pop.

It is not recommended that you put your baby in a bulky snowsuit in their car seat. It makes the restraint less effective. Thin jacket and blankets. Or take the jacket/snowsuit off - but that is a pain.

I do have a carrier style car seat.  However, at just four months my baby is getting heavy to carry in it.  Often, I get her out and make the transfer to the baby bjorn.....and she's fine with that because she snuggles up against me and is either right back to sleep or at least happy.  I think you are super smart to keep purchases to a minimum.  There is no reason to have every bell and whistle that's geared for baby!! 

I never thought it was a question because the hospital required us to have a car seat in order to bring the baby home. We had to demonstrate we knew how to strap him in it properly and the nurse carried him out to our car. I've heard on occasion that the nurses would do spot checks to ensure the base was installed securely. I don't think a full-size Britax which both my kids are in now and have been since 4 or 5 months old would have met the hosptial requirement.

One thing I also found that was helpful with the infant seat was keeping baby upright when they were sick. Never mind propping the mattress up with they had a cold so they could breathe easier--I just put baby in the carseat and let him sleep in that.  My 2nd was an acid reflux baby so he spent many a night in the carseat as well. We got a lot of use out of ours, even if they did outgrow it quickly.

So, that being said, I never thought of it as a bell and whistle, just a short-term necessity.

I don't think it's "dumb" not to buy an infant carrier, but I would recommend it.  I loved the infant carrier and almost cried the day my five month old son grew to big to cram into it anymore.  I loved popping it out of the car and carring him (sleeping) into restaurants and eating an undisturbed meal as he slept.  I loved popping it out of the car and popping it into the stroller so we could walk around and enjoy a nice day.  I loved popping it out of the car and popping it into a shopping cart to quickly get the groceries.  I guess if you don't drive a lot then it doesn't matter.  Of course it isn't a sin to wake a sleeping baby to get him out of the car, but it can be more work for you to do what you need to do once the little one is awake.  

I was glad fo rthe seat to sit on the floor wheni went to the doctors ( hard to get a pelvic with a baby strapped on), ate out or it was cold and rainy.  Also in our state you cannot leave the hospital without a proper infant, not convertible, car seat.  The head support is better so they can breath properly.  If the head flops over even a bit for a while they can smother.  You cant see it since they are facing backwards.  Yes, it is a pain to carry but you said you do not drive much so you would only use it once in a while. Great for after nursing or feeding too to prevent reflux and ear infections. 

 

Cass

Im pretty sure that the convertible seat we are looking at (Radian) should pass all hospital safety rules - it has a special insert specifically for infant and is for babies from birth to... something crazy like 65 pounds. So if it passes Canadian safety standards for newborns (which are strict), I can't see how the hospital could say it's not good enough. But I could be wrong!

I'm in Canada, so ymmv, but with our fifth child we planned to do this, too - we brought in the convertible car seat we had that's supposed to go from 0-40 lbs - it wasn't new, but it was safe (i checked on the website and with the dates on the carseat) - and when my dh brought it into the hospital, they vetoed it and made him go buy an infant seat before we were allowed to take our daughter home.  Maybe that's just scary socialism at work, but fwiw...

 

 

Really? Oh no, Im in Canada too. What if we all just take a cab home - or the subway? They cant stop you from doing that! Im within a 20 minute walk fo the hospital. Even more annoying than having to buy an infant car seat for a couple months use, is buying it to use for just one day! Maybe I can call the hospital and ask them. This is rather annoying.

 The only other time I found the carrier to come in handy was in restaurants and the like.  I never found slings/bjorns comfortable seated, nor do I want to eat over my baby, and until they can sit up, they can't use a restaurant high chair...

I'm a mother of 4 and have used an infant carrier with 3 of the 4. Honestly the only time that you'll miss not having one is when you are eating out and baby is too small for a high chair. It's very annoying to have to hold baby while you eat out. That's my only comment on not getting one..... but I don't know that it's reason enough to have one. And to the person who said that don't fit on carts, the only place mine (peg perego 2007 model) doesn't fit is my neighborhood Costco. Talk about an irritating place for it not to fit. Here I am shopping for my family of 6 with my baby either inside the cart or in a sling.....

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We had both, an infant carseat someone gave us and a convertable carseat. The infant carseat was good for the hospital because they insisted we showed them the carseat properly adjusted in the hospital before we left. It also fit into our honda civic very well and it was nice to be able to bring it inside if the baby fell asleep in the car on the ride home, but we never used a stroller, so if we went out somewhere I put my daughter into a baby carrier anyways. The issue we had with the convertable carseat was that it did not properly fit into our car in the rear facing position, it didn't tilt back enough and it was big on my daughter even though it claimed it could be used from 5 pounds up and my daughter was 6 pounds and taller then the minium as well. She didn't fit into the convertable carseat well until 3 months old and we didn't use it full time until she was 7 months old and the bucket carseat was on it's biggest setting, once again even though my daughter was below the weight and height limit. We have since also bought a affordable 2-1, infant and toddler (not infant, toddler then booster like the other convertable carseat) and I think that may have worked better when she was an infant. Another good thing about the 2 in 1 is that it's more lightweight then the other convertable carseat and we have carried it inside with my daughter in it asleep without waking her up (even up stairs!). 

So basically, yes I think you can get away with not having a bucket carseat and just using a convertable carseat if it is the right one, that fits the baby and fits into the car you have.  

 

So glad to hear that there are others who haven't given in to the infant car seats. We don't have one, just a convertible car seat for 5-40 lbs., and I feel that since we don't drive more than a couple times a month, we've been wise to spend our money on a couple of really good slings and a nice, durable stroller.