First Impressions: Saftey 1st Guide 65 Convertible

It came! We ended up getting the Safety 1st Guide 65 Convertible Car Seat for our 'spare'! Well mainly for hunter's car! So I figured I'd do a little review from my first thoughts on in! And in a few weeks after it's been used in the car I'll do another review!

We ended up buying it online at Walmart.com! From what I've found they sale it on Amazon for $107, Babies R Us for $98 and Walmart for $78. Though, the one at walmart is only the 'Sport' Version.

From what I can tell the only difference int he original and sport version is that the original comes with an infant body support, the sport one doesn't.

It's not sold in stores at babies r us, so you can't go there to see it 'in person' but it is sold at some walmarts. We have about 5 walmarts around here and within the past few weeks I've only seen one that carries it, the Laffeyette one by the way. Which is right by my school, so one day on my lunch break I went to check them out. They had them in two colors, black and grey, and black and hot pink.In my opinion the pink was extremely overwhelming and bright. And since this was for hunter's car we went with the black and grey. I ordered it online, free shipping.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-Guide-65-Sport-Convertible-Car-Seat-Athens/19514414

^ there's the link to it!

Well my first impressions: (remember it hasn't been installed yet, so this is just my opinions on looking at it inside the house)

I loved how compact it was! It will definitely fit in small cars!

The head support moves up and down, even past the shell height!

To give you a reference Emerson, is 8 1/2 months, 27 inches and about 19 lbs!

The crotch buckle has 3 slots, for rear facing you have to use it on either 1 or 2, (closest to the baby). But it doesn't matter for forward facing. Emerson's fits best on slot 2. But none of our other car seats have this feature so I was definitely surprised!

One con I did see was that this car seat is that is supposed to be usable from 5-65 lbs. But there is no way a newborn would be tall enough for the straps to be at or below the shoulders for rear facing. The straps would definitely be above the shoulders for a newborn, so i would not recommend this seat for baby's first seat. There are 5 strap heights and emerson is on the very lowest.

Because we have older cars, neither one of our cars have latch capabilities. So in order to use the seat with a seat-belt you have to store the latches in different places. This would be very confusing and probably get very misused with careless parents who don't read the manuals. But in storing this I learned that it will be very hard to install this seat rear facing with a seat belt, the spot where you would insert the seat belt is very small and if you had a big arm it would be very difficult to install. Because of this, I would not recommend this seat if you will need to move it around from car to car a lot.

Another thing I noticed, was the latch system. We use the latch system when Emerson's car seats are in my moms 2009 Accord. But i did notice that this car seats latch system is a lot easier to use than the Graco My Ride 65's. That being said, they are definitely harder to use than the Chicco Keyfit's Base's latch system, which I have to give it to Chicco they have the worlds easiest latch system!

Also, on this car seat, the cover is definitely well padded! And I think the bottom/leg part of the seat is actually more padded than our Graco MyRide 65.

And there isn't a level ball on this seat, this is the first seat we've owned without one, so i feel like it will be a lot harder to tell if it is truly level. 

Another con is that this seat has a height limit to rear facing, while our Graco MyRide 65. This seat will only rear face until 40". While the MyRide will until the head is 1 inch below the shell.

The chest clip seems flimsy to me, and is definitely thinner(cheaper) than the Graco and Chicco chest clips. This seat also didn't come with Shoulder Pads/covers which honestly I think it makes it easier to ensure the harness is tight enough!

Sorry it's sideways! But she loves it!

All in all I think i'm going to love this seat! Though I would not recommend it for a newborn, it will definitely be the seat I suggest to people after their babies out grow the infant bucket style seat!

Carseat Shopping.

Well we're in the market again! Emerson's got like an inch until she grows out of her infant car seat that we keep in hunter's car, so we need to get one for his car. We know we don't want get another huge one like the one in my car (Graco MyRide 65) But at the bare minumum it has to rear face until 40 lbs. I've been doing some research, and I found 2, not so expensive ones.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12535626

This one ^ Evenflo Tribute 5. It lasts until 40 lbs, forward or rearfacing. and it's $59.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-Guide-65-Sport-Convertible-Car-Seat-Lydia/19514415

This one ^ came out this summer (after we got our Graco) The Safety 1st Guide 65. It's $78 at walmart and $99 at babies r us. (Obviously we'll be getting it at walmart. But it last 40 lbs rear facing and 65 forward (just like our graco)

We're really torn on whether we want to get one that will last until 65 or just 40, because by the time she gets 40 lbs, we will hopefully both be graduated and may not need two car seats. My biggest issue is how easy it is to tighten the straps. The chicco key fit we have that she is about to grow out of is sooooo easy to tighten and loosen the straps, therefor i trust that hunter does it correctly. Our Graco is a little harder to get it as tight as it should be. Do any of yall have any suggestions? Or any experience with either of these brands? I need advice!

They just don't understand.

Today, we went to hunter's moms house just to visit. So before we left she kept insisting on looking at a car seat. I told her we were fine. But she knew we were planning to buy another one for hunter's car. Well she had one. So I tried to make up every excuse not to take it to not sound rude. We went to the garage and looked at it. I looked for the expiration date, 2014. Then I mentioned how the fabric of it was so sun faded that the plastic probably was faulty  too, I don't know if this is true, but i really didn't want to take it. Hunter completely understands why. His mom does care for her belongings very well, and a car seat should definitely be taken care of. I know for a fact that car seat has been left outside in the rain. So then she was like since it's kinda faded I'll make a cover for it, then I told her that car seat covers will void the warranty. And then she was like well yall can just take it as is. Not wanting to cause a fight, we took it. So now I'm left with this car seat I REFUSE to use just sitting in my garage. And we are still planning to another car seat for hunters car. Which I know his mom will say something, when she sees us not using her car seat and if she sees that we bought a new one.

What do you do?

Before I became a mom, I gave no thought to seeing a baby in their car seat on the top of the shopping cart. Now, it makes me cringe. Or the people who use an obviously expired car seat with no concern. What do you say to these people? I said nothing. Tonight I went to Ingles (grocery store) to get groceries. When I was walking in, their was an older woman, a grandma, walking out, she had a baby in an infant car seat, sitting on top of where a child would sit. It's dangerous, and definitely warned by car seat manufactures. Then when I was in the check out line, there was a couple checking out ahead of me. They had the infant car seat sitting inside the cart, but the car seat was super old, and i'm not talking 5 years, I'm talking at least made in the late 90's early 2000's. They also had a head rest not made with the car seat in it, an after market product. What bugged me the most was that they were buying a lot of alcohol, yet their child was using an expired car seat. I'm not saying I'm against alcohol, but when you're not providing for your child, I just can't justify that. But did I say anything to either of these people? No. I didn't. Why? I really don't know. When you see a parent/grandparent obviously misusing a car seat do you call them out? If so, what would you have said?