Car Seat Shopping

It is time to get a new car seat for our grandson. I am doing the happy dance and hoping I am not premature in my joy. We were given a perfectly good seat that went from rear facing to forward facing that still meets safety regulations but it is a pain to adjust. Worse, the Prince of Sweetness doesn't like it. He seems to fear getting into it and we don't know the reason. Once in it, he is fine. He is fearless climbing onto and into just about anything else I can think of, but that car seat is the source of anxiety for him, and therefore for me as well.

He is a very big boy for his age, both in height and weight. If he would climb into the seat in the middle of my small car on his own, I could easily manage buckling and unbuckling the harness. Going shopping, to the library, visiting, you name it, would be much easier if he didn't dread getting into the seat. He sometimes goes rigid with fear and trembles which just about breaks this grandma's heart. He wants to go with me, just not in that dang seat!

Hubby took the seat out of my car last week to make room for adult passengers on a girls night out dinner date. I checked the data on the backside of the seat and see that Colton has reached maximum height and weight. Yay!!!

Did you ever see someone so happy to spend over a hundred, possibly over two, on something that won't be used every day?

I checked to see what brand Mommy and Daddy have in their cars. I can't find that exact model online but did find a similar one by the same manufacturer. I am looking for a harnessed seat that later becomes a booster seat so that hopefully I won't be shopping for another model in two years. I have spent all morning looking at combination car seats/booster seats online. Shopping for my wedding gown wasn't this difficult!

Assuming Colton might remain in the 90+ percentile for his age throughout the next two years, I don't want a seat whose maximum limits for 'forward facing with harness' is not that many pounds and inches greater than his current size. Adapting to a booster seat when he is a bit older and bigger seems like a good option.

While I am not hesitant to order many things online, a car seat isn't one of them. I want to see it, feel it, examine how it is going to buckle around him and into my car. Many of seats at Babies R Us and Target are only available online. I will check out both stores anyway as they are near to me, but I was trying to be efficient and comparison shop before dragging hubby around. In reality, since the seat is for his little buddy, I probably won't have to drag him at all. If I was the jealous type, I could be annoyed with those two!

By the time I weeded out seats that don't meet my requirements but were available somewhere to see in person, my choices were few and of course, none were available at both Target and Babies R Us. So much for comparison shopping of prices.

Then I remembered Buy Buy Baby. Oh boy, another can of worms, expensive ones, or the answer to my quest? They had brand names I've never heard of, but seem to have more variety available at the store if their website is correct.  One that caught my eye is made by Recaro. If I hadn't worked in the automotive world, I may not have recognized that name, but Recaro has made seats for race cars for over 100 years. The reviews were good. The forward facing seat is good up to 90 pounds, far exceeding the other models I looked at, and when converted to the booster seat, it is good up to 120 pounds. He might be ready for driver's training by the time he outgrows that feature!

Wish me luck finding something that seems safe, is fairly easy to adjust and doesn't scare the Prince of Sweetness. If it turns out to be the Recaro, it will cost more than my wedding dress but what the heck....it will get more a lot more use than the dress did.