[ShannonMVT]

Dh went with me today to look at baby things. We're starting to make some decisions about what we want to buy.

On the carseats, we do have an Evenflo Portabout infant carseat that was used by my niece. However, she was born in 2003 so the carseat will expire in Dec. 09. There are no recalls on it. When I was talking to my SIL about it recently she said she wasn't sure if we should use it, since it's so old and if she had it to do over, she'd just get a convertible carseat from the get go.

So I'm wondering #1 should we even use the infant carseat they gave us or not, because of the age? It's in good condition, only used by 1 baby. They also gave us two extra bases that go with it.

I've heard some people say they really like the convenience of just taking the baby in and out of the car in the carrier. I really don't know if this is a big deal to me or not. I may use a sling or carrier more but I just don't know. I guess I could always use the carrier to carry the baby around in even if I don't use it as a carseat, although then I would have to move the baby, possibly wake him up while moving him around.

As for convertibles, I am pretty sure I want a Britax. I need documentation to show Dh why they are better though. I know I've heard they are, just don't know specifics. I know the 5 point harness is a big deal, but lots of the other convertible carseats had 5 point harnesses as well. Which one should I get? Marathon, Boulevard or Decathalon? And also, how hard are they to move from car to car? The reason I ask is that probably one day per week I'll be working and I will drop baby off at daycare (maybe at home daycare) and Dh will pick baby up. So I was thinking I could just take the carseat out and leave it at daycare (would they let me do this?) and have Dh put it into his car when he picks baby up. Otherwise we'd have to get second carseat for another $300. Expensive! So much money since every other time baby will be in my car.

Also, I have a stroller question. We are thinking about getting this one http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2909900 You can get it as a travel system or just the stroller. If I get the stroller without the carseat, will I still be able to put an infant in there?

For cribs and changing tables, we both like Munire. It's high quality, but I don't know that we would actually convert the crib to a bed. They convert to full size beds and our bedrooms are too small for that. Plus, neither Dh nor myself are big fans of headboards and footboards anyway. But I do think we'd use the combo unit and hutch as the child's dresser and bookshelf for when they are older. Dh just isn't sure about spending so much on a crib, when we won't be converting it to the child's bed later.

[Adriana's Mommy]

Infant carriers.. I personally like using them.. I had a Fall baby and I loved that I was able to keep her warm throughout winter without having to bundle her up.. It worked perfect for us.. Plus, it was easy for us to get her in and out of the car.. I personally wouldn't use a used infant car seat, unless I owned it and knew the history of it and when it expired.. I would be a little hesitant to use one that was not mine, even if it was in the family.. We also had a matching stroller that went with our infant carrier. I personally think the stoller itself is to big for a infant. Plus one of the good points of the combo is that you can protect your baby from the weather when you put up both canopies from the carrier and the stroller. As for the crib, it's up to you.. We got one of those 3 in 1 cribs, it's a sleigh style bed.. We plan on using it for a while.. I'm just thankful Adriana only bit the side of the crib verses the head board and foot board of the crib when she was teething.. lol


*On a side note: About Britax, they are a wonderful seat and have great reviews, but one of my Navy co-workers got into a serious accident, her car rolled a few times and her 1 year old son was in a Britax.. The seat stayed in place, but the buckle holding him in the seat broke.. Her son was thrown out of the car and she had to do CPR on her son to save his life.. When I head about this, I learned that there's no such thing as the best car seat.. So please research and choose what's best for you and not what other people say is the best..

[SandKmommy]

I recommend an infant seat. We moved Seamus to a convertible in January 2007 so he was 6months old and it was a pain in my butt.

But I would recommend getting a new one, Its kind of pushing the date. They recommend keeping the baby in an infant seat till they are 20-30lbs(depending on the weight of the seat) or till they are 1yrs old.

I personally dont like Evanflo, and you should see the post in my DDC...most BTDT dont like them either Seamus' convertible right now is an Evanflo and I dont' trust it to last much longer, hes getting the Graco Natalius(sp?) soon.

[Frozendesire]

I had an evenflo travel system with Curtis and will be using it again with this baby. I like the infant carrier. You don't have to disturb baby! Even if you use a sling or carrier you can just slip them out and use it, but the infant carrier give you the option of just taking baby as is. I LOVE that it just snaps right into the stroller and your good to go. VERY handy. I personally would never use a stroller like that one with a baby that doesn't atleast sit on their own. Curtis stayed in his infant carrier for a long time. It was much more supportive and cozier.

I'm not to sure if you would want to remove a carseat once a week. That too me seems like alot of work considering how perfect you want it to be installed in the car ya know? It's a bit handier with a infant carrier cause you can just leave a base in each car. But when you hit a convertible one (we changed to one at 11 months or so) you might rather have both. If you go with the infant for a while you could maybe save up for the two britaxes? Just a thought!

I'm not to sure about the crib... can't help you much on that one.

[ANGWife]

I have some of the same questions

Does anyone else have a hutch that they use as the changing table as well. When we saw them in the store, I was imagining changing a baby and it didn't have much room. We would just get a standard crib, but my MIL wants to buy it. It will be the one we like but she insists on getting us the converting one. We don't have much room for alot of furniture so we need to choose our pieces wisely.

[SandKmommy]

Honestly I was worried about having a changing table with Seamus. We never got one, and never needed one. I just put a blanket down when changing him when he was littler. (But then again we spend cheaply, sense we dont have alot of $ and don't see a point in spending money like that, but thats where we differ from most on JM )

This time we are using a pack-n-play that has the built in changing table and bassinet.

[misfitinmn]

I personally love our infant seat - there were times when he was really little that I carried him around in a sling or front carrier, but now that it's winter, it's easier to just zip up the cover on the infant seat and bring it with us. That said, he is almost 20 lbs now and it's getting HARD to carry, so we have a stroller frame which works awesome and is super light and easy to carry around. Once we switch to a convertible seat, we'll probably get something more like an umbrella stroller - I just like the lightweight strollers I guess. We have a Chicco Keyfit30 which will carry Ben to 30lbs and 30 inches. It is SOOOOO easy to use (I would HIGHLY recommend getting a seat that you can tighten the straps in the front, it's so convenient!) and the base is also super easy to install. We'll probably get either a Britax or a Recaro when we get a convertible seat - and one that goes to 65lbs so we don't have to keep buying new ones.

As for the baby furniture...we thought long and hard about all of that, too. We ended up getting a nice crib (that we'll probably use for more than one baby) and then just a cheaper changing table. We'll get him a nice dresser set once he's past the age where he'll want to color all over it or put stickers all over it or whatever. I personally still use our changing table all the time - it's easier for me than keeping diapers randomly throughout the house and especially when I first came home from the hospital after my c/section, it was nice to not have to bend over or get down on the floor to change him. I know I am in the minority as far as using the changing table a lot, but I do love ours and it still gets used for just about every diaper change we do at home.

[Resi]

I have some of the same questions

Does anyone else have a hutch that they use as the changing table as well. When we saw them in the store, I was imagining changing a baby and it didn't have much room. We would just get a standard crib, but my MIL wants to buy it. It will be the one we like but she insists on getting us the converting one. We don't have much room for alot of furniture so we need to choose our pieces wisely.[/b]

I would skip the hutch with a changing table. It will take up a lot of room and you most likely won't use it much. I have NEVER changed Oliver in his room. He gets changed in our bedroom on our bed. It's the perfect height and he still sleep in our room. You will only be able to use the changing table for a short time until the start moving around too much. I know you can continue to use the hutch but I think it's just too big to make it worth it. Unless you have a large room for it.

[Resi]

I love our infant carseat. I bought an expensive Peg Perego infant seat and have an extra base. But, I would have went with a cheaper infant seat like a Graco if I did it over again. I'm not sure if I would use the old Evenflo. I plan on getting a Britax when he outgrowns his infant seat.

When it was warm out I put him in a carrier when taking him out of the carseat. He hate his carseat and would scream the whole time I drove around. Now that it's cold out it's much easier to leave him in his carseat and put it in a base snap and go stroller when we our out. When we go grocery shopping I put the seat on the cart. When it's warm again I will most likely go back to using the carrier.

[Emma&Jack's Momma]

I don't have much time, but I wanted to say I would suggest an infant carrier car seat as well. I just had a normal Graco carseat and it worked well for 5 months, til she grew out of it. I bought a $150 convertible (Alpha Omega) for my car because she is with me 90% of the time. I bought a cheap $60 seat for DH's car because she isn't in his car much at all. His car seat is SO much easier to remove than mine, so if we have to take her in someone else's car, we use DH's car seat.

One thing I would suggest with a stroller, is plenty of basket space, a key holder and 2 cup holders for you - plus one for baby! It makes it sooo much more convienent when you're out and about!

[~Jess~]

I'd use your niece's infant carrier. Chances are baby will outgrow it before it expires. Alyssa is only 4 months old and has almost outgrown hers already! The stroller you linked to will lay flat for an infant to lay in it, so it would work fine, but many ppl prefer having a frame that the infant carseat will snap in to. I had one with Zack, but not with either of the other kids and for me it's not a big deal, but I'm really big into slings/carriers.

Honestly, ppl make huge deals over beautiful expensive cribs, but they use it for such a short time and a $60 crib functions the same as a $800 crib. If you know you're not gonna convert the crib to a full-size, then skip it! It's a waste of money, IMO. I used the same $100 hand-me-down crib on all 3 of my kids. It's just a crib, it's really no big deal. I'm kinda cheap like that though. If I don't HAVE to spend a ton of money on something, I won't.

That said, I do own a Britax carseat (Regent)--which is amazing, I love it, but now that I have 3 carseats in the back of my car, it doesn't fit. I also have an Alpha Omega--AWESOME seat, and an Eddie Bauer--SUCKY seat. The Eddie Bauer is our extra seat in our truck that is rarely driven. I'm actually gonna swap it out though and put the Britax into the truck. I hate that it's just sitting in my closet right now.

[ShannonMVT]

Jess, my frugal queen! You know it was starting to worry me as I was imagining

Stroller $130
Infant carseat $99
extra base $40
Britax $300
Britax for Dh's car $300

Almost $1000 just for stroller and car seats! I mean, I know having kids is expensive and we have money saved but OMG.

We looked at niece's carseat and it's really hard to move the handle back and forth. I thought it was just me but it was hard for Dh as well. Not sure if we can use it because of that so we may want to get a new infant car seat.

I like the idea of having one nice convertible seat like Britax for my car and then getting one less expensive (but still 5 point harness) to go in Dh's car for that one trip home a week.

I'm still thinking about the furniture situation and what we'll do. My niece still does use her combo/hutch as a dresser and bookcase for her things and it looks nice so that's why I was going to do that. But it does take up a lot of room and to get the whole set (crib, combo, hutch) is expensive. I'm also re-thinking which bedroom baby will be in and how we're going to let the cats upstairs to use their litter box but keep baby away from the stairs.

I feel like my brain is going to explode from over thinking. Ack! For some reason hitting 20 weeks has really made me think "oh crap I have to get ready".

[IamMom]

Infant seat and stoller - we used a travel system - I think evenflo and I'll think we'll reuse the one we have....however that was from 2006 not 2003 so I would get a new one. LOVED the infant seat, from car to stoller without moving baby - very nice.

For a crib we got a hand-me-down and DS is still in it (over 2 1/2) - I never even checked into the safety of it but the first baby who used it was born in 1997 so its old - but its been fine - DS never chewed on it, climbed out or anything. I think though we're going to get a new one for this baby - its just too old for another go round. I don't think you have to spend a ton of money on this - especially since some babies are out of cribs at 1 1/2 or younger.

Changing table - totally pass on that - we have one (part of the hand-me-down package) and we use it for storage - never really changed him on it - we use the floor, bed, etc. like everyone else.

We're getting Britax seats for both kids - the one that goes to 80 pounds - I think its coming out first of 2009 - the Advocate....

Good luck - looks like your getting alot of good suggestions and information!!!

[**Jenn**]

We skipped the infant carseat and went straight for the convertable. We have only used Britax and I love them. Liam started out in the Roundabout and when Lochy was born we got a Marathon for Liam and Lochy is in the Roundabout. My Mom had an infant car seat for her car for Liam and I actually found it more of a hassle than just taking him out and using a stroller or sling. Liam has always been very small but that sucker gets heavy carrying it around! Plus, I just don't personally trust them--my own issues. I know I'm in the minority there but we were also saving money and the convertable seat made much more sense for us. We got pads for the straps though for both seats--they're especially nice for the newborn stage when their heads are more floppy and the pads help keep their heads up and not slumped forward.

Our stroller is very lightweight too. I didn't go with a travel system because I always heard/read that the strollers were pretty heavy and most people ended up buying a lightweight one anyway. Mine reclines completely flat so it is perfect for a newborn. And you can take the seat completely off and flip it around to have the baby facing you or facing out--a feature I especially loved when they were really little.

We never got a changing table either. I personally don't like using them. I just got a bunch of waterproof changing pads and would lay them on the couch, bed, floor, or wherever to change the baby. A large sized cloth diaper will do the trick though too. We got our crib off ebay. It was the exact same one I was going to by in the store for $400. I thought it was worth the expense because it was a crib all our children would use. A couple days before we were going to get it I saw it on ebay but it was a pick up only and they happened to live only about an hour from our house! We totally lucked out! It was in great condition, only used by one baby, no chew marks or dirt (although we did wash and sanitize it), and it only cost us $130!!!!

All the gear was so overwhelming when I was pregnant with Liam. I didn't even know where to start. I highly recommend the book "Baby Bargains." It was extremely helpful!

[thepinkleprechaun]

I like having an infant seat for sure, it helps when you have to run errands and you're in and out of the car a lot and you don't have to take the baby out every time.

We have a Britax Roundabout for Aden, but once this baby outgrows the infant seat she will be getting a Marathon and he will use the Roundabout. I would reccomend getting a Marathon right away, if I could do it over that's what I would do. The marathons go up to 65 lbs and I want her to be in a 5 point harness for as long as possible!

As for cribs, Aden has a lifetime crib that converts to a toddler and then a full size bed. It was about $300 or $400 on clearance at BRU because they were discontinuing that style. I figured it would be cheaper than having to buy a whole bed later on, so now all we have to get is the mattress when she is ready to be in a full size bed. Jeremy's mom just bought us the same kind of crib for the new baby so we won't have to worry about a bed with him either.
One thing I would NEVER get is one of those drop side cribs....too many of them have been recalled and I don't think they're safe, and I also don't think the drop side is necessary. When Aden was littler we had the mattress raised way up and we could just pick her up. Now that she can stand up and everything the mattress is on the lowest setting so she can't climb out!

[Mars]

I got a Chicco infant carseat but I'm at work and can't remember the exact brand. DH and I both have 2 door vehicles and it's easier for us to use the smaller car seat at this time.

The crib that I have converts to a daybed, etc but I won't need it for that because I already have a double bed in the room so this little one can move over to the bed once she outgrows the crib.

And I have a lightweight, umbrella stoller from Kolcraft (it has really good reviews). I didn't buy one of the travel systems because I didn't think it was practical for me. They can be very heavy and I'm not a big person. Mine recclines completely flat so it is suitable for newborns but I probably won't really start using it until after 3 months.

my head . . . is spinning

[Adriana's Mommy]

Wow, I can't believe most of you don't like your changing tables.. I personally LOVE ours and I still use it.. I love to have everything in one place and I honeslty don't like changing Adriana on my bed, etc.. I think it's gross, no offense to those who do.. Our changing table was givin to us, it has 3 levels on it.. I use one level that has 2 baskets and I use it for easy to grab clothes and bath stuff and the bottom is for toys.. I don't know how I would survive without my changing table.. When I get time today I'll take some pictures..

[ShannonMVT]

my head . . . is spinning[/b]

I hear you.

The stroller we are thinking about getting is, I'd say, mid-size. I don't want something huge either Mari, because we have a Honda Civic and don't want it to take up the whole trunk and I am a small person as well. But I do think I'll want to use my stroller right away to stroll around the neighborhood. I'll be totally at home for 3 months and I need to do something to get out of the house. We'll see if I end up having the energy to do that.

I think Dh and I have decided to go with just a cheaper changing table and a middle of the road crib instead of the expensive furniture. We decided what's the point of the hutch to display all the child's books when they can't even get to them b/c they are so high up? We'll get new furniture once we do a big boy/big girl room.

[ScottishBrit]

ok where do I begain.....


First all I got a convertable crib and I hate it. I didn't know till after that the side bar doesn't come down and me being a shorty can't put her in it, esspecially without waking her. Needless to say she hasn't been in the crib yet but oneday will have to. I almost need a stepladder just to put her in. Other then that It would be great.

Stroller wise we got an eddie bauer travel system and I HATED It! Cambria was and still is very uncomfortable in the carseat but I dont want to buy another infant carrier when we want to get a britax soon. So for now she's still in that. I got lucky and my mom bought me a peg perrego stroller and we love it. This one is very expensive though but I swear worth the money. And from other people i know that have it ( random people who i see and some stop me with questions about the stroller ) have no complant's.

We are planning on getting a britax as well. My sister gave us 2 of her's but my neice is 8 so Im sure they've expired by now. Im pretty sure we're only getting one though. DH's car is older and ( it's not that old, 03 i think ) I never ride in it anymore. It has no AC and the seats in the back are always down cause of things for his work. So when time comes we'll be getting the marathon i think....