Multiple car seat combinations - what is the best way?

[CalicoCathy]

I have posted briefly about this before.

I would really appreciate some advice about fitting 2 car seats and 5 people into a car.

Bit of background - we don't own a car, but in the Summer we will be visiting family, and will be collected/delivered to the airport each end in their car - a journey of about 2.5 hours mainly on motorways.
We are a family of 4 (2 kids aged 4 and 13 months), me and DH. BIL will collect us, so there will be 5 people needing to squeeze into the (not especially big) car.

In the past I have sat in the middle, 2 DC in car seats on either side of me, DH and BIL in the front. However I am worried that DD2 will have outgrown her stage 0+ car seat when we make this trip, and that I just won't fit between 2 bigger seats.

So... the car seats available are:
Mothercare stage 0+ rearfacing seat, which I suspect will be too small.
Britax 1st class SI, which can face rear or forwards
Britax Evolva 123 (in fact we have 2 of these, but not happy about putting the baby in one)

Options which I can see are.

1. As before, have DDs both on back seat, DD2 in mothercare rearfacing baby seat.
   

Problem - DD2 may not fit in it (she is very tall, above 91st centile for height)

1. Put DD2 in Britax 1st class rearfacing, and DD1 in Evolva in the front seat.
   

Problem - DD2 will have to sit behind DD1 as there is no way seat could fit rearfacing behind the driver (DH and BIL also very tall and drive with their seat very far back). So DD1's front seat would not be able to be pushed right back from the dashboard, and I am not happy about this.

1. Put DD2 in the 1st class forward facing, and DD1 in the front.
   

Problem - this would solve the problem of DD1's seat needing to be pushed right back from the dashboard, but I would prefer DD2 to still be rear facing, as I imagine she will only just be 9kg then (although she is very tall she is not correspondingly heavy)

1. Put DD2 in Britax rear-facing and put DD1 on a booster cushion without a back in the back seat, then I can fit between them.
   

Problem - DD1 is also very light, and I'm not happy with her not having a proper seat, with a harness.

1. Make DH (or me) get the train.
   

Problem - will take hours, involve several changes and travel across London, will be expensive, will be lots of additional hassle.

1. Go on crash diet so I can squeeze myself between 2 seats in the back.
   

Sorry this is so long . If anyone has managed to get this far and has any advice to offer about which option would be the best (or any I haven't thought of!) I would be extremely grateful!

[CalicoCathy]

Bump

I guess what I am essentially asking is - is it worse to have 4 year old in the front with the seat NOT pushed back as far as it will go, or is it worse to have the 13 month old forward-facing when she is only just at the required weight?

[mybootsaremuddy]

How far away from the top of the seat is top dd2s head? If a few inches left to go then you may find she will still squeeze in (they can use infant seat till top of head reaches top of seat).

How heavy is dd1? If under 18kg and tops of her ears are not over top of the seat I would use the first class for her as its not quite as wide as the evolva.
If too tall/heavy then maybe look into somthing like the Britax highliner/Adventure hbb as this looks to be slightly narower than other hbb so you may find you will be able to squeeze between.

[CalicoCathy]

Thanks for replying!

I don't know exactly how well they fit in the seats because we don't have them with us - in-laws keep them.

The only thing I can do is measure DD2's upper body nearer the time and then get them to measure the seat and see if it seems she would fit, but it is a bit inexact. She fitted fine a couple of months back, but she was only 8 months old then...I do know that DD1 was too tall for that seat by 13 months and she was generally smaller than DD2 is.

DD1 is nowhere near 18 kg, she is more like 14, but last time we visited, a couple of months back, the top of her head was a bit over the back of the seat in the 1st class, although not sure it was quite at ear level. But she has a couple more months to grow before we go, which may well put her ears over the top of it, plus she can't have it anyway if DD2 needs it, which is the main issue . I don't think she is heavy enough for a high back booster without a harness yet. The Adventure looks like a good option for the future though.

[notfarmingatthemo]

do any of your friends have the same seats or could you take them to a shop and sit them in the seats you have.

[CalicoCathy]

It's difficult to do that because we aren't in the UK, but all the seats were bought in the UK.

The baby seat is a Mothercare one, which doesn't exist over here (and in fact Mothercare don't sell it anymore either).

I don't want to buy anything new, because it will literally be this one visit where we will have this issue - we won't visit again afterwards until DD2 is at least 18 months, and by then it will be no problem to have her forward-facing.