Musical Chairs
We are now overflowing with seats. Seats for a baby. Seats and seat covers for a baby.
Just to warn you this post is mostly about baby products and if you are not interested I suggest you scroll down and enjoy the pictures of the baby.
I own all of these seats.
I chose the Profile Travel System (Tahoe Print) by Baby Trend as our infant seat stroller of choice. I chose color based on what matched my Excursion. Steven chose the brand and model due to safety. Every other brand of stroller with baby seat if you grasp the front with baby seat attached the babyseat would tilt and the stroller would slam to the ground. Not this one. This stroller is heavy. It has rubber tires not plastic formed wheels. It is not as easy to fold and stow as it takes 2 hands and you can pinch your fingers if you arenot careful. I wouldn't trade it for any other stroller. It has served us very well. The baby seat also has the car seat base with latches that hook to the frame of your vehicle. This thing isn't going anywhere once you have it installed. I have never felt better about having my baby in a car.
Roomy undercarriage for lots of shopping bags.
Steven is now over 20lbs and 29 inches long. He is too big for the baby seat. We now have had to buy a bigger infant/toddler car seat that can be rear or forward facing. In Virginia a baby has to be 20 lbs AND 1 year old to ride forward facing. I have a Brittany Spears problem because my baby is too big for an infant seat and too small for the regular carseat. He is already too big for a rear facing seat at 6 months old. His feet push against the back seat. Time for a new seat.
I have purchased the Triumph DLX Convertible Car Seat in Marimba Print by Evenflo as the new car seat for the next stage of growth of my baby boy.
It has a cup holder!
He will eventually out grow this seat and I will have to purchase yet another car seat to accomodate him but no expense is too much when you are talking about the safety and life of your child. I do not have a review of this carseat as we have not used it to be able to base our opinions an every day experiences. This seat was chosen for comfort, Consumer Reports rating (as good as ifnot better in some cases than the far more expensive Britax) and the fact that is it rear and forward facing and should contain my son safely for the next year or more.
Next in our musiucal chairs line up is the Bumbo Seat. Who invented this thing? It is fabulous!
NEVER WALK AWAY AND LEAVE YOUR BABY UNATTENDED!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME????!!!!!
Once your baby is old enough to hold his head up without wobbling you can put him in this foam support seat and the baby will be able to sit upright keeping your hands free. It is perfect for those times when you really need to do a few things but the baby is crying to be held or to be near you. Folding laundry is easy as pie when you put this on the table top right beside you and put the baby in it.
NEVER WALK AWAY AND LEAVE YOUR BABY UNATTENDED!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME????!!!!!
The baby can sit on the countertop or tabletop or on the floor while you are doing immediate chores.
NEVER WALK AWAY AND LEAVE YOUR BABY UNATTENDED!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME????!!!!!
If you have a new baby or will be having a new baby put this on your list of items to have. You will be glad you did.
We also have a floppy seat. Oh, the floppy seat!
No more germy shopping carts!
I get so grossed out when we go places and see the nasty shopping carts. I refuse to let Steven anywhere near one. Now that he is able to sit up on his own I purchased a floppy seat so I won't have to gag and cringe at the thought of putting my baby in a filthy shopping cart seat.
Steven loves his Johnny Jump Up.
Nice soothing colors.
As he got older and before he could sit up we used the bouncy seat in the upright position to feed him and to let him play. One thing about this seat though is the vibration does nothing to sooth a baby and the music makes you want to scream. They should continue to make this seat without those things. I chose this seat because I hate loud garish colors for baby things. Primary colors are great for toddlers but they overstimulate babies and no one needs an overstimulated baby.
We have lots of other seats. The high chair is used from when J. was a baby and the grandparents had the seat at their house to use and they gave it to us. It is not attractive but perfectly functional. Steven sits in it just fine at meal times.
The walker he is using to scoot all around the house is from when Gracie was a baby. It works just fine. No need to buy a new one.
Tapioca at bath time - yummmmm!
There are things I wish I had never wasted money on. The biggest being the Circle of OverStimulation and Frustration.
After about 10 minutes he is completely over wired by this thing.
It is for ages 4 months and up. At 4 months he hated it -and still does.
Two other seats we have ordered have not come yet. We chose a very inexpensive (yet safe!) standard rear bike seat for Steve's bike and for myself I got the european Bobike Mini seat so Steven can ride up front and I can keep an eye on him. Plus he can see where we are going and not my big old butt.
Do we need this many seats? Heck no! But they sure make life a whole lot simpler and easy.
BTW, my baby is not in a seat all of the time. Many days we use only 1 seat and maybe even no seats. Over time we have collected these things. The bouncy seat is now put away and not used. The bathtub ring will soon be retired as he can now sit on his own.
Steven plays in the floor with his toys and he rolls over and flips on his tummy and gets mad when he can't sit back up but does a good job of struggling to try to sit up. Any day now I suspect he will be sitting up from his laying down position all on his own. When he sits up if he can get a grasp of a solid object he tries to pull himself up. I do wonder if he will be like Colby and walk at 7 months or more like Gracie and walking at 8 1/2 months.
P.S. A baby bathtub is a big waste of money and does nothing but take up space. I learned that with Colby, tested it again with Gracie, and proved myself right with Steven. All my kids hated the exersaucer type things.
I enjoyed your reviews and loved all the pictures! You are right about Primary Colors they are loud and overstimulating!
I am more of the simple muted color kind of person and will probably still be when I have my babies!
Steven is getting so big!
The only thing you don't have listed here that I couldn't have lived without when my kids were small is the infant swing. Granted, it's only good for a couple of months because once they get just so big, you can't fit them in it anymore. My kids loved their swings though.
He has a swing. All the grandchildren used it and they passed it on to us. He loves to swing.
I was just thinking about how our house is overrun with baby seats too & was considering a post on the subject, but now maybe I'll just link to yours. We recently received the Bumbo seat and love it. Your reviews of the others are helpful and dead-on too. I can relate to a lot of this. Thanks.
p.s. Steven's smile is wonderful. He has smiley eyes like my Moe.
My children LOVED the johnny jump up seat. You are a regular consumer report, I almost spit lol at the 'circle of OverStimulation and Frustration' which is exactly what it looks like. You've given me some great ideas for baby shower gifts. The only 21st century thing I knew before reading this was a boppy. Having my first one walk early encouraged me to keep the second one grounded longer. If I had blogged when he was a baby his name would have been Get Down Damnit.
We didn't have exersaucers with my first but my second lived in hers. She loved it! They both liked the swing for about a month and had lots of good time in the vibrating bouncy seat. (who wouldn't ;-)
I always oooo and aaaaahh over the new products that come out for baby. They really have come a long way since mine were that age.
PS- Great pics :)
Oh, Triumph DLX Convertible Car Seat in Marimba Print, how much do I love this car seat. We have the exact same seat for my 2 year old. We had my on in it too, all the way until booster time. You won't need to buy anything else until booster time. I love, this car seat.
Bouncy seat, we got the ones that vibrated and converted to toddler seats which are great now that they are toddlers. Wonderful seats. Also loved the bathtub rings. Was very sad when my youngest grew out of it. Now they are both slippery monkeys free in the tub.
Boy did this post bring back memories.
Your Steven is absolutely beautiful!
He is still gorgeous and I agree with everything you said. I LOVE the foam seat idea!
I have heard that bumbo seat is awesome! Next time around I am getting one. My daughter loved the exersaucer. That is the only thing that seemed to entertain her, she hated the swing and was to tiny to really get the jumper jumping. The saucer was the one thing we loved.