Britax baby-safe sleeper - has anyone squeezed it alongside another car seat?

[herecomesthsun]

We think we would not get another car seat in the back,despite having a Volvo V70, because the sleeper is 91cms - has anyone else managed to fit another DC in the back with a BBS sleeper?

I tried ours next to our Besafe Izicombi - no joy. Am quite gutted about it. Enough to consider getting an ERF to put in the front seat, and I'll sit in the back with the Sleeper.

Not that I need to yet, but I like to torture myself do the research well in advance.

Shame about your car though - my parents have a V70 that I was convinced would fit it and I thought I could persuade them to let me borrow it for a few months if we have another one Ah well.

We have decided to go for the option you suggest. In fact the two way elite we have will fit in the front rear facing and then the baby-safe sleeper can fit in the back and I will be able to fit alongside. It also means that we now have a lie flat pram as the baby-safe sleeper can fit on our Bsmart.

Thanks for the reply!

if you get the airbag disabled in the car you can have the 2 way elite rearfacing in the front.

depending which version of the V70 you have you may be able to disable it yourself with the ignition key.

Yes, DH has managed to turn off the airbag today and got the seat in the front. I have ordered the Babysafe Sleeper today also (the baby is due in less than a month so we thought we needed to get it sorted, hence all my questions on here ). I have not been very well in the past few weeks so there are a few things I need to do before Dc is born and this has been an essential one!

Many thanks for the advice.

We used the Sleeper on our BSmart too. It's a fab pushchair, we're still using it now as DD likes to face whoever's pushing her. And a lovely car seat - it lasted us 7 months with DD, and we drove to France with it when she was 8 weeks old, minimal stopoffs that way .

I'm thinking about a twe for DH's car, but I think we'd also have to check it fits in the front of my Punto (with the airbags off) too, in that case. I think we'll only use the sleeper for 3-4 months 'next' time, as it will be cramped in the back .

Good luck with DC2 OP. Hope the next few weeks go well

DH is now saying that he is worried that having the TWE rearfacing in the front will impair visibility for the driver, especially of the side mirror on the front passenger side, so we are going to have a Think about that one.

dunno, having driven a car for years (old vw beetle) that didn;t have a mirror on that side i'd say you';ll be fine :)

i'd rather have the child rear-facing tbh than the extra mirror

We have just done a shopping run and I thought visibility was fine. DS was very chuffed at sitting in the front and getting more attention and says he wants to sit in the front from now on (and choose the CDs).

can i just ask (and this may be a stupid question as you clearly value safety, having an ERF seat)... but how does the baby safe sleeper rate safety-wise?

i haven't had a newborn for ages, so not up on the safest infant carriers. I just remember a bit of a hoo-haa a while ago about carrycot type restraints not being safe (the Jane ones in particular i think)
so just wondering if the Britax one is better?

The Britax one got 76% on the Which ratings, but you know the nature of their, um, unique criteria for them to rate ERF seats poorly. Still, IIRC it got 76-77%, which at the time wasn't far off the Cabriofix.

It has a 3 point harness in the seat, and a roll bar/carry handle to stop it tipping too far in an accident - it would cushion on the seat in front.

It comes with buckles that attach to your rear seat belts - passenger and middle, and you have to have a 3 point middle belt too, or else there's no vertical piece of seatbelt to attach it to. Once the buckles are at the right level, it's just a case of clipping each one to the D rings on either end of the car seat and adjusting the buckles by pulling the top part of the seatbelt downwards to tighten the whole thing in. TBH, we left it in the car permanently as it saved us a whole minute of faff whenever we went anywhere. It was absolutely solid, didn't move a millimetre.

Herecomes - glad the twe fits in the front, I bet your DS loves being important there!

thanks for that stetsons! I like to keep vaguely up to date with these things, but as I say, I haven't needed the infant carrier knowledge myself for a while!

i also cannot remember what the exact prob with the Jane carrycots was either although from memory Which marked them as "don't buy" but like you say they doesn't necessarily mean they're unsafe does it! Have lost faith in Which? a bit now

i like the sound of the britax one actually

I was about to say I'll post a pic of it fitted so you can get an idea, but all the ones I have are of it as a pram, or on the floor with DD in. I've got a vair scrummy one of her on her way home from hospital that I could show off share, but not in the actual car so it's a bit pointless.

I think it's a brilliant seat. Obviously. But it takes up a hell of a lot of space, which isn't very practical for multiple child transportation. And there's no way you could contort it/yourself into the back of a 3dr car

yes, i definitely wpouldn't fit 3 across the back then lol

By the way, (now that the thing has arrived) do you think we need the newborn insert for the babysafe sleeper? We are planning to use it with a baby snuggle anyway and are likely to be having quite a big baby...

DD was 9lb born and I doubt we would have fitted the newborn insert in as well as her

I think the insert is designed for preemies to give them a bit of extra cushioning, and I would imagine it helps retain some more warmth.

I'll put a pic on my profile so you can make up your own mind, but I'd be inclined to not bother, personally.