Car seat configuration 3-wide

[cptbobproffesoromemeology]

@justapewfiller Could your oldest buckle himself? That’s what I’m most worried about - having to reach/climb back there to buckle him, unless I go ahead and forward face him

 

[justapewfiller]

@cptbobproffesoromemeology He could not. Sometimes we would reach over one of the smaller ones to buckle him (I'm only 5'2" so I'd just climb right up into the van to be able to reach, but my 6'2 husband could reach just standing on the ground) or we'd buckle him before we put the infant carrier in. Since he was forward facing we also had the option to have him climb in and get situated while we got both his brothers in and then I could get in the drivers seat, put a knee on the console and reach back to buckle him, which ended up being my preferred method, especially when I was loading all 3 of them up by myself. It was a whole process lol, still is 7mons later.

 

[sabstame]

@cptbobproffesoromemeology For over a year we had 3 across (two toddler/preschoolers) and an infant. They were all backward facing. We managed to buckle them all in. It is easiest to do when on the side that has the infant seat in it (without the infant seat actually snapped into the base if that makes sense), but was totally doable when reaching over the other car seat. We used two Nuna Ravas. Also in a Honda Odyssey. I wouldn’t have been able to easily (or even at all, I’m honestly not sure) put the infant car seat in the middle over the Nuna Rava and as the baby got heavier, it would have been MUCH harder to lift him.

 

[cptbobproffesoromemeology]

@sabstame That’s a good point I didn’t consider, buckling the middle seat before the infant seat is in its base. My oldest can and does climb into his seat himself, just can’t buckle himself (and I’d want to check it anyways). We will trying this if the other arrangement doesn’t work and I can convince him to give up his window seat

 

[sabstame]

@cptbobproffesoromemeology I promise, they do adjust!! And I have a neurodivergent kid that doesn’t like change, so I do understand how difficult it can be to adjust.

 

[rgw00]

@cptbobproffesoromemeology So, we use a convertible car seat from birth, but we had the same age gaps, and put the baby in the middle. When she got too big for me to easily pass her to the middle (around 1.5 I think?) we switched the oldest to the middle seat since she could buckle herself or only needed a little help. We did end up turning the oldest around forward facing around that time, for a variety of reasons, but it also helped for middle of the row access.

 

[cptbobproffesoromemeology]

@rgw00 Ok this was all my line of thinking so it sounds like what I was thinking would work for some time!