Living in a small town where the only place to buy a car seat is Wal-Mart, and they only have 3 or 4 options per type of car seats it can be very very difficult to know what you like and know where to find what you'll like. I started by looking at those options at the Wal-Mart and not liking any of those options I went to the trusty old internet. When I was looking for an infant carrier I knew I didn't want a handle that was one option of carrying and that I had to constantly re-thread the straps (babies grow super fast!). The search was on for the best car seat for me, I kept an eye out online as well as the grocery store (I did this to see how well mother's did with different types of car seats). I found a car seat that I thought I would love, it was the Babytrend car seat with the triangle car seat. I made a daring leap of faith and ordered it, yes I did end up paying a lot more than the basic car seat that could be found at our local Wal-Mart, but it was totally worth it! When it came time to use it it was the best car seat I've ever used, I hadn't used a lot but from babysitting experience I had used a few. This car seat you never have to re-thread the straps (except for cleaning), you can hold the handle in several comfortable different options and it doesn't weigh a lot. Look for a good car seat for you, not your neighbor, not me but you! You're going to be carrying that thing for at least 6 months so you might as well get what you want. My baby got to the point where it was uncomfortable to carry him in the carrier by 6 months and although he hadn't reached the weight limit but was quickly approaching the height so once again we were in the market for yet another car seat.
Now the question became how many car seats did we want to buy, I don't know about you all but I did not want to buy 3 or 4 more car seats so I knew I wanted to get a car seat that would grow with my child all the way from rear facing to booster. The search was on, I looked once again at our local Wal-Mart only to be disappointed in my options once again so back the the internet I went....I still didn't know a good brand to trust so I talked with another mother to see what she liked and then took her advice mixed it with what I was looking for and searched some more. Once again I wanted a easy to install car seat, light weight (I found one that weighed 33lbs!) and adjustable straps. I found what I wanted and it wasn't even an arm and a leg to buy which I was excited about. So I got the Alpha Omega Safety 1st car seat, I have a love hate relationship with this car seat right now. The love is that it is going to last until the young one is out of a car seat, adjustable straps, cup holder (for when he's older) and good padding. The hate is that it is not really easy to install rear facing, takes up a lot of space in the back seat with how far it has to be reclined in the rear facing position and it is really wide if you put the arm rests down. I'm hoping that installation will become easier when it's front facing (we rotate cars a lot so we move the car seat a lot). So my advice for buying a car seat for the older babes is buy what works for you. If a convertible car seat won't fit in the back seat of your car then you will probably need to buy more car seats will be necessary, I drive a small SUV and the seat we got barely fits so make sure to look at dimensions of the car seat before you buy!!!Anyway you look at buying car seats and what ever kind of car seat you buy just get what will keep your precious little one safe and not brake the bank.
