Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

My daughter has low muscle tone. I really don't think she'll be able to do this. And how do we reach over to get her buckled in? Do I have to leave the baby in the carseat on the sidewalk?

Why is she forward facing? Put her in the middle rear facing and put the infant seat rear facing behind the passenger.

OP here - She's 3, that's why she is forward facing. There is no room in the car to do the middle seat. it's way too tight in the back.

BTW my husband pushed his seat back comfortably in the driver's seat and the baby seat doesn't fit. UGH.

What car do you have? How much does she weigh? You may just need different seats. We had two very small cars and made two carseats work.

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you move the baby seat depending on who is in the car?

All 4 of you -- you drive, baby goes behind you.
You +2 kids -- baby goes behind you
Husband +2 kids -- whatever he prefers

... etc.

Sorry to be rude, but this is so inefficient. You want us to switch the car seat whenever we switch who is driving? Usually he will drive one way and I'll drive home. That sounds really unsafe too, to constantly be switching the car seat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

My daughter has low muscle tone. I really don't think she'll be able to do this. And how do we reach over to get her buckled in? Do I have to leave the baby in the carseat on the sidewalk?

Why is she forward facing? Put her in the middle rear facing and put the infant seat rear facing behind the passenger.

OP here - She's 3, that's why she is forward facing. There is no room in the car to do the middle seat. it's way too tight in the back.

BTW my husband pushed his seat back comfortably in the driver's seat and the baby seat doesn't fit. UGH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

My daughter has low muscle tone. I really don't think she'll be able to do this. And how do we reach over to get her buckled in? Do I have to leave the baby in the carseat on the sidewalk?

I don't know anything about low muscle tone, so please forgive me if I'm overstepping, but can your DD walk by herself? If so, she should be able to scoot across the back seat of small car with the bucket out. So you go to the curb side of the car, put her in to move across, then click in the carrier and close the door. Walk around to the street side, open the door, and help your DD into her seat. Do the reverse when you arrive...open DDs door, unbuckle her then close the door with her still in the car. Go around, take out the carrier and put it on the sidewalk at your feet, help DD across and out, pick up the carrier and go. With the carrier out you should practically be able to climb across the car yourself if you need to (the base won't block you that much, especially if the front passenger seat is pulled forward) so you can help your DD. Yes you're still opening the street side door, but you don't need to open it far and it's just you and not either of the kids out on the street.

You could take the advice to put the carrier behind the driver and have that always be you, but if your DH is anything like mine (he prefers to drive and is world's worst passenger in any case) that's not going to work.

Why don't you move the baby seat depending on who is in the car?

All 4 of you -- you drive, baby goes behind you.
You +2 kids -- baby goes behind you
Husband +2 kids -- whatever he prefers

... etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

My daughter has low muscle tone. I really don't think she'll be able to do this. And how do we reach over to get her buckled in? Do I have to leave the baby in the carseat on the sidewalk?

Why is she forward facing? Put her in the middle rear facing and put the infant seat rear facing behind the passenger.

Anonymous wrote:Op, how about you drive with baby behind you and toddler and dad on the passenger side.?

That's what I'd like to do actually

Op, how about you drive with baby behind you and toddler and dad on the passenger side.?

Anonymous wrote:OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

My daughter has low muscle tone. I really don't think she'll be able to do this. And how do we reach over to get her buckled in? Do I have to leave the baby in the carseat on the sidewalk?

Do not unload the toddler in the street.

Speaking from experience, with a small car, a tall husband, and an infant carrier/forward facing car seat combo...you're going to need to put the toddler behind the driver and the baby on the passenger side. There won't be room for your DH to move his seat back with the infant carrier behind him. Plus, as pps have pointed out, the infant is safest on the curb side so that you can fully open the door, set the carrier down next to you if needed, etc. If you can't reach across from there to unbuckle your toddler, do that before rounding the car to get the baby (but don't let the toddler out of the car, just out of the seat) then have the toddler crawl over to you. With the bucket out that shouldn't be a problem even if you have to move the passenger seat forward to make extra room first.

OP you are overthinking this - don’t put the bucket behind your husband bc he won’t be able to drive safely. Unless there are special circumstances, the toddler absolutely can crawl over the bucket or over the base or under the bucket or even through the front seat. You also don’t want to be loading the baby on the street side bc you’ll have to open the door all the way, sometimes it’s easier to set the bucket down, etc

Anonymous wrote:I would lean over and undo the toddler from the curb and have him get out on the sidewalk side. Once you have the bucket seat out you should be able to lean into a sedan to do this unless you are super short.

OP here - That will be too hard. The car is too small and the toddler will not be able to climb out on the passenger side. I also think this would be really hard for my tall husband and short me.

I would lean over and undo the toddler from the curb and have him get out on the sidewalk side. Once you have the bucket seat out you should be able to lean into a sedan to do this unless you are super short.

I am due with a 2nd baby any day now. DH and I share a compact sedan. We drive every day but not far distances and it's worked for us. DH is quite tall, about 6 feet and I'm short. Originally I was going to put the baby behind the passenger seat and the forward facing toddler behind the driver to make sure DH had enough room to drive the car. But now I'm thinking about parallel parking and having to unload the toddler into the street. That makes me nervous and it might be quicker, faster, easier to unload the baby on the street side and run her over to the sidewalk.

Thoughts?