If you bought a Britax First Class car seat or one that stays in the car

[MillyMollyMoo]

for the first 12 months, did you miss the travel system/carrying the baby in the house option ?
I have a brand new Britax and it feels a bit indulgent to be buying a maxi cosy too but I cannot remember how much I used the car seat on the chassis option.
TIA

I never missed the carry into the house option at all, the once or twice ds actually fell asleep in the car we undid the seatbelt and carried him in in the britax. Was no big deal.

But then ds never did settle in a rear facing car seat.

I had an infant carseat but it was not compatible with my pushchair. I didn't miss this part as if he was asleep he soon went off again once the pram was moving, but for bringing him into the house asleep it was useful and I used this quite a lot. But thinking about it, it would probably be easy to resettle them if they were tired, if you fed them/rocked them as soon as you got in, and if they were not tired then they would probably have woken up soon anyway.

I have a Britax first class. We did have one that went with travel system, but to be honest he was always a bit uncomfortable. Now when he falls asleep we just carefully unclip him and carry him in, he usually falls asleep again.

It was useful having the chassis thingy, but we didn't use it that much, and as he was so uncomfortable in it, we often transferred him to pram anyway.

we have never had the one that you can carry around - we just got the Britax First Class seat that stays in the car, it's fixed and always has been. I'm glad we just got that one because DS learnt from v early on to just stay asleep as he get lifted out each time, it never bothered him and he's still the same three years on.

We got a car seat that stayed in the car because our phsio told us that babies are spending too much time in car seats and its not good for them.We had Dc3 last summer and he usually stays asleep with the transition so its been fine. The other two would have woken up but its never been a problem really.We found that the car seats that stayed in the car were actually better quality they seemed sturdier.

Oonagh that's exactly the reasons we didn't get an infant carrier thingy, because the temptation would be to leave baby in the seat sleeping. We did it the hard way and carried him in each time from the car. You get used to it after a while and you can't miss what you've never had...

Hmmmm with dc 3 & 4 I found it useful to put them in the car seat in the house say 5-10 minutes before you had to leave and you knew they were ready to go. Also handy to be able to put infant carrier down somewhere whilst you helped toddler get into the car, pick them up etc etc.

I also used it on the pushchair to do the pre-school pick up at lunch times (walked the rest of the time)

I didn't like carrying a new born in my arms and bags and toddler it all felt a bit vulnerable IYSWIM

I wonder how people coped before infant carriers were on the scene when they had more than one DC...

We had/will have again britax first class for our dcs. My pet hate is seeing babies in car seats ON pushchairs for hours on end, there is really no need when below them is usually the seat for the pram that lies flat anyway. Its not good for babies spinal development and SOME people overuse them way too much IME
Its only recommended that they are in them for max 1 hour which when you factor in travel time when actually in the car, most babies have been in them too long by the time their parents are 20 minutes into their shopping trip/outing.

the only time I felt I wouldve liked one was in supermarkets as I dont like putting newborns into the seats in trolleys-quite a few are very upright and not really suitable for a brand new baby. This was overcome however by either taking the pram in if only getting a basketful of stuff or if I had to do a big shop, by using a sling.

BEfore infant carriers they went in carrycots in the back of the car so pretty much in the same way as with an infant carrier!

But carrycots allowed the baby to lie completely flat. infant carriers do not.

Carrycots aren't safe either and all attempts at rectifying the lie flat problem, M&P Navetta's, early Jane Matrix & Autocot were slated by Which.
It is difficult to know what to do for the best, but I think car travel safety ought to come higher up the list than spine development if there has to be a choice.
Am as indecisive as ever you'd think by number 4 I'd have this equipment malarky sussed.

MillyMollyMoo you have to think about your lifestyle and the day to day reality of how you will be doing the school run etc. We made the most of being able to walk as much as possible so didn't use the carseat much at all but needed to have something that was easy to fit into several different cars.

Britax have brought out a new lay flat one that is supposed to be much safer than previous attempts.

We had a 1st class with my eldest son - we exchanged our travel system for it as it broke when he was 4w and never missed the infant carrier as I never used on with the pushchair (dont like carseats for too long, hate seeing them on pushchairs) If he was asleep I'd unplug him and bring him into the house to sleep in his cot.

DS2 we started with the 1st class, and about 4 weeks in I bought an infant carrier. Not for the pushchair, but for things like playgroups. DS1 was only 19m older, and we used to go to library and singing groups - no room for a pushchair, but needed two hands for DS1. DS2 was quite happy to sit in the infant carrier. I also found it a handy seat when popping in grandparents etc and trying to juggle both kids.

We went back to the first class when he was about 9mo from memory.

I didn't drive with my DS much so went everywhere with the pram. On the rare occasions we did go in the car, was a bit of a faff, especially as we have no back doors on our car so had to climb in while holding him! However, when he was 3 months I put him in a friend's infant carrier and would have struggled carrying him very far, he was so heavy. The car seats turn around before you know it, making it easier, and the days of them staying asleep in the carrier once you have carried them into the house don't last long. In our case, we didn't think it was worth the extra money. We are stingy frugal

Our car seat had to be one that didn't fit on our britax pram to fit in the yaris we had.

We were also glad that we just left it in the car all the time and so weren't tempted to have DD in it for any length of time and had to move her to her pram cot or moses basket.

I have slight back problems and am really worried by how long some babies are in their car seats for.

My understanding is that the carseat position is great for surviving a crash and awful for breathing deeply from the base of the lungs or for the spinal development. I have heard of babies dying from SIDS in their car seats which also scares me as I can see they are not able to breathe as deeply as when laying stretched out flat. I know SIDS is unexplained so it could be nothing but the spinal issues alone made me nervous about them.

A friend came out with us recently with a two month old and as she was sleeping she was in her seat without a break for 5 hours - in the car, round the shops, through lunch, back in the car again. Convenient but scarey to me.

i had an infant carrier, but only rarely took it out of the car.
I just used to put baby into the pram if we were out, or carry him into the house., really never found it a problem tbh!