Hellobee Boards

We switched him right around 8 months. I'm guessing he was 19lbs or so. He wasn't too big for the seat, but it was getting heavy to lug around.

Around 7 months, she was 18 pounds so nowhere near her weight limit of the seat but waaayyyy too heavy to lug around anymore !

We switched right before 10 months when Xander reached the height limit for our seat.

We're at 17 months, and just going to buy our convertible this weekend! She's tiny though.

As for the weight being to much to carry around - you can keep using the seat, but just use it like a convertible (i.e., leave it in the car and carry baby in/out!

ETA: I would just get a convertible for your parents.

we switched at about 10 months. we could have continued using the infant seat for a lot longer, we still had about 2 inches to go. but she was starting to get pretty upset about getting in the seat, and I was sick of lugging it around. I'm so happy we switched. She loves the 2 convertible seats we picked out- and sleeps much better in them than she did in the infant seat (she used to wake up at every stop light!).

You could look into a seat that has an option for smaller babies. I know its pricy, but we got the maxi cosi pria and love it. And I know it has an infant insert, so you could use it now with no issues. honestly, if I had to do it over again, I'd probably get one infant seat/base for the car we used the most (because its convenient to pop her out and into the stroller, etc), and then get a maxi cosi pria with infant insert for the other car.

We switched around 10 months. She still fit, height and weight, in the infant seat. I was just sick of caring it around and we got the seat on sale, so I wanted to go ahead and use it so the box wasn't sitting in the office anymore!

We switched at 8 months - I was just tired of lugging it!

Our LO isn't here yet but we got one infant seat for my car and then a convertible for my husband's car. We only take my car when we're together, and I'll do most of the driving with her anyways. My husband will mostly only use his car to take her to daycare in the mornings, and the random circumstance where I'm not around... so I didn't see the point in buying a second base for $80 when we'll barely have her in his car. The convertible seats are baby safe, so it made sense to me to just get that, which she'll fit in for years.

@swurlygurl: Good point! I do miss it when it is raining out. So much easier to get her buckled inside and snapped in really quick.

You can install infant seats with out the base. Unless your parents are wanting something they don't have to install themselves or you're like me and don't trust your parents to install a seat properly, I would go with a convertible seat. We switched my son around 8-9 months and he was definitely getting pretty heavy to lug around in the infant seat.

Around 7 months when she could sit up well unassisted so that it was easier to take her places without it.

Right around month 8/9, before a 5 hour drive to my parents' for Christmas. She was getting increasingly crabby in her infant seat and it was a PITA to move. And really bad for my back (my chiropractor said the worst thing was to carry around that damn bucket seat!). Mostly it kept jacking up my pelvis, so I was happy to let it go.

At her 1 year appt, she was 31" tall and our car seat was OK up to 30", so i'm glad i switched her early. She's much much happier/chill in her convertible than her infant seat!

We switched around 6 or 7 months. I'd say it depends on how much bases cost for you seat - we were able to get one for about $25 and knew we'd be using the infant seat again with #2, so it made sense to go ahead and get my parents a base.