Hellobee Boards

We waited as long as we could to switch since the infant seat was so darn convenient for us! The firefighters who installed our new one at a year (when he grew almost too tall) said we actually could have gone longer and been ok.

Nope. My girl was in hers until she finally outgrew it at 18 months. No issues at all.

We just switched b/c we wanted too... P JUST hit the height limit for her infant seat, but she's been in her Combi since March. Really we had the funds to get the seat then & I wanted to start using it. Since we don't carry her in the infant seat anyway there was no real reason to continue using it over her new one.. plus the Combi is a great orange so I liked it better aesthetically as well.

We are in no rush to switch. LO is almost ten months and only 17lbs / 27 inches. But carrying her in the bucket seat was starting to be a struggle for me. So we but her convertible in my husbands car and just leave the bucket seat in my car.

I have no idea how you women haul around these heavy seats! I saw this thread and came in to comment because "early" to me meant something else -- I installed our convertible this weekend and my daughter is 17 weeks. I hurt my shoulder carrying that infant seat in and out of daycare every day. Plus she cries and screams in it and spits up everywhere - rarely ever sleeps in it, so I end up hauling around the seat in one hand and the baby in the other... what a nightmare.

All this to say, we switched 'cause we wanted to and I'm so glad we did. It's way easier for us. And she seems to like it more, too.

@LazyLightning: haha, I stopped hauling the seat around months ago! The seat stays in our car or gets lifted into the stroller... and that is when the stroller is standing as close as possible to the car door! if I am running a quick errand and don't want to take the stroller out, I use the Beco.

There's no safety issues, but I found that my daughter just got way too heavy in the infant bucket well before she was near the weight limit (and she wasn't quite at the height limit yet either). Once I wasn't using the bucket to tote her around anymore, I decided to just switch to the convertible.

We are still using ours and don't plan on switching anytime soon. LO is ~19 lbs or so and about 28 inches. Our seat goes up to 30 lbs/30 inches and we are still benefitting from the convenience of carrying him in the seat. He fidgets quite a lot when we put him in, but he also does not like to go in the stroller or the high chair, so I am not sure if a convertible seat would help at all.

@LazyLightning: I literally never understood that, either. Lugging those car seats around is crazy heavy! Mine never came out of the car, nearly.

We switched LO to a convertible at five months, mainly because infant capsules here only go up to six months (18 lbs and/or 27 inches). That being said though, the last few weeks of hauling an infant seat in and out of the car were torture - even if we had the option of going longer here, I wouldn't have. I infinitely prefer our convertible!

The only thing I would say is to make sure your LO still has enough cushioning around her in the convertible. We bought a Safety 1st that has air pocket inserts that can be removed when the baby is too big (at 15 months we're still using them comfortably), but I know not every convertible has that. BIL and SIL went with a convertible from the start and haven't added any infant inserts, so even though they're technically compliant with the law, when I see pictures of their 7 week old LO in the car seat, with all that room around her and see her head flopped off to the side, it makes me cringe with horror. I just can't see how that would provide any protection in a side impact, but technically it's compliant.... Anyway, that would be my only advice, make sure your LO is snug in the seat, otherwise, I can't see any issues with it!