She Doesn’t Fit
You all know how much I love my Orbit car seat/stroller system. I’ve been the poster child for how wonderful the Orbit is. But in the past couple of weeks, I’ve grown to love it a bit less, mostly because I have to contort my child into a pretzel in order to get her into it.
Zizi is not that big. She weighs only 16 lb, 11 ounces and is at the 50th percentile for height and weight. But put her in her winter coat or her snowsuit and you have to contort her leg and foot into ridiculous positions just to get them inside the straps. The straps are too damn short!
Has anyone else had this problem with an infant car seat?
I had planned to purchase the toddler stroller seat now that Zizi can sit. Yet, I’m a little frustrated with the company and the car seat. Instead I’ve been thinking about the cool Quinny Buzz: It folds up well, like the Orbit does. I haven’t checked out the Bugaboo Bee to see if it collapses as well.
So anyway, back to the car seat. I’ve sent an e-mail to Orbit to see if there is something wrong with the straps on the car seat, but if they tell me that the straps are meant to be that short, what should I do next? Should I move her out of an infant seat to a regular car seat (rear facing)? Should I buy another infant seat?
Oh wise parents, please help!
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I stopped using the infant seat around 6 or 7 months because it was just more work trying to lug the two of them around in those things. We bought their next big carseat and installed it rear facing until they were able to be turned around (which was a little after a year).
We actually never used the infant seat in the stroller because we never got around to buying the adapter for the Bugaboo. Ahem. But fortunately, you can tilt the Bugaboo flat so that she was laying pretty much like she would in an infant stroller anyway.
Maybe I should just give you my Bugaboo, which is currently in the basement not being used much. Isn’t that terrible? When we use one–which is hardly ever now–we use a McClaren. It’s so nice and tiny when folded up, I just love it.
So I was no help at all, was I?
First, what about ditching the coat and using one of these (and taking the coat along if you need it out of the carseat) – scroll down on the page to fleece car seat covers.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mysweetdreamsbaby.com/images/traveltoppers.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mysweetdreamsbaby.com/&h=393&w=400&sz=24&hl=en&start=18&sig2=grvUMGPO_9VdEqwcPJSimg&um=1&tbnid=_ovwOWu5JY1BhM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=124&eid=rbNWR_3HLpjIiQGd1aXkBQ&prev=
Second, my friend who has 3 kids told me (wisely) to just get a lightweight stroller to keep in the car all the time. We have a Peg Perego Pliko Lite and it works great. We have a bigger jogging stroller (Bob Revolution) that we use for walks/runs around the neighborhood but it’s nice to not have to load the stroller every time we go anywhere.
Third, if you are thinking about getting the next car seat up, check out this clever invention. https://www.gogobabyz.com/products/gogo_kids.html
I would skip the snowsuit and instead put her in in warm clothes with a blanket or a car seat cover (or both) on top. The closer the straps are to skin, the safer she will be in the car seat. And way easier to get in and out and deal with in a warm car! It was hard to give up the infant seat which is so wonderfully portable!
Pictures of your daughter are gorgeous!
Sorry, I’m a bit late to this post. Be careful with what after-market products you put on the carseat. Many, many times they void the warantee on the seat. If the cover you’re looking at reroutes the carseat straps, don’t use it (or modify the cover so you don’t route the straps). These are quite unsafe for the baby should you be in an accident.
The general rule for determining on the weight of clothing to wear in the seat is to strap them in with the coat on, then remove it and restrap them without adjusting the straps in between. If there is slack without the coat, its too think. The fabric can compress causing injury.