Victory is mine! 3 car seats across!

[turtlegirl]

Yesterday morning I conquered getting 3 car seats in my car. It was no joke being 36 weeks pregnant and I was sweating to death by the end, lol. It included flipping the 3rd row up to get everything tethered and installed correctly.

We have a 2013 Ford Flex. DS1 is 4.5 years old, about 40-42 lbs and in a Baby Trend Hybrid 3in1 booster, still harnessed. I bought a new seat for DS2 (turned 3 last month), an Evenflo Tribute convertible since it's known for being narrow. However, it's only rated FF for 40lbs. He's about 33-34 lbs now. DD will be in the Chicco Keyfit 30 infant bucket seat that I've had since DS1.

The infant seat expires in Feb 2016, which is about when I expect DD to outgrow it anyway. So then I plan to move her into the Evenflo Tribute rear facing and see what we can do about the boys.

Right now I have DD's infant seat in the middle. We'll see what a pain in the ass that is to lift into the car over DS1's seat. But I don't trust the boys to sit next to each other and not be touching each other and bugging the crap out of me and each other. When they sit in a double cart at Costco it's annoying enough, lol. But we might try it if the infant seat gets annoying in the middle and move it to behind the passenger seat.




And third row is still flat! Love all this glorious trunk space!


As you can see, DS2 is pretty much at the max of the Tribute car seat. But it was only $50 at BRU with a coupon and should work for at least the next 6 months or more while DD is in the infant seat.


And holy crap! We have 3 car seats in our car. Shit is getting real, lol.

[turtlegirl]

AmyRI

[heygrey]

I'm impressed!

[Deleted]

Impressive!

[zarapipe]

Nice work!

[AmyRI]

Awesome! Thank you! I hadn't thought about a hybrid booster fir DS. Great idea.

We are going to hopeully be buying the new version of the Safety 1st infant seat with high height/weight limits and can be used up to about 18m (just leaving it in the car like a convertible). Then I can reuse my single and double strollers with it. It also looks like they made the bases narrower... off to see if I can find numbers to compare with the keyfit.

[AmyRI]

One more question - which seats are seat belt installed vs latch and what order did you install to give you easier access to tighten them?
Thanks again!

[mainelyfoolish]

One thought...if you put the oldest kid in the middle and the baby on the outside, your oldest kid could potentially be helpful for retrieving lost pacifiers or toys for the baby and you wouldn't have two older brother poking their little sister at the same time.

[londoncalling]

Impressive work!

[bbonanza]

Great job!


I remember before DD3 was born the effort put into making 3 carseats fit in DH's Honda CRV. We had DD3 in the middle in the infant car seat, same you, it was also set to expire around the time she was wuld be growing out of it. I don't remember what we had for DD1 or DD2, but they are in boosters now so it's much easier. Fun Fun!!!

[meltoine]

Nice!

This is my project for tonight. I got a harmony defender for DS1 (4.5yo, 42lbs, 43in), a radian for DS2 (2yo, 28lbs, 34in) and our graco snug ride for DS3. The harmony is in my car already but I'm waiting on the angle adjuster for the radian, which should arrive today!

[turtlegirl]

Aug 6, 2015 9:48:36 GMT -5 AmyRI said:

One more question - which seats are seat belt installed vs latch and what order did you install to give you easier access to tighten them?
Thanks again!

All are seat belt installed. I only have latch on the two outer seats and I think with the new rules you aren't suppose to latch with heavier kids, right?

[AmyRI]

Aug 6, 2015 11:42:55 GMT -5 turtlegirl said:

Aug 6, 2015 9:48:36 GMT -5 AmyRI said:

One more question - which seats are seat belt installed vs latch and what order did you install to give you easier access to tighten them?
Thanks again!

All are seat belt installed. I only have latch on the two outer seats and I think with the new rules you aren't suppose to latch with heavier kids, right?

My understanding is that the LATCH weight limits are different for every car, so you have to look up the max in the owner's manual, and then weigh the car seat + kid and make sure that's under the max of the LATCH in the car. We've just gone to seat belt installs, too - I was just curious if you used LATCH and whether it made the process easier.

[Deleted]

Good work!

[winecheery]

That's really impressive!

[laurenh]

Nice work!! This was such a PITA for us and took several trips to BBB. I hope I never have to do it again lol.

[dizzycooks]

Jealous!! This is my mission in the next couple months. So far, no dice.

[clynn58]

I currently have baby in the middle and I am going to move him back to the side because big brothers are passing things over him constantly.

[turtlegirl]

Aug 6, 2015 14:15:24 GMT -5 clynn58 said:

I currently have baby in the middle and I am going to move him back to the side because big brothers are passing things over him constantly.

Yeah, I'm definitely keeping the possibility of needing to move the baby to the side open. Just waiting a few weeks to see how the boys react once she's actually in the car with them.