Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat Onyx

Britax Marathon Convertible Car Seat Onyx – From Britax USA

Don’t get me wrong….I would own nothing other than Britax seats at this point. We have 4 children and we’ve tried various models. We’ve donated the others to Goodwill. We currently own 5 Britax car seats for 4 children. We have 2 Regents, 1 Parkway(used as a spare), 1 Marathon, and 1 Roundabout. I feel as though I’m a walking advertisement for Britax and we’ve been accused of being uptight about car seats.

As far as I’m concerned, there are three main features that we look for in a car seat:

1. Does it fit securely in the vehicle?

Forward facing, this seat is awesome. We don’t have the latch system in our van, so we never had the opportunity to use the latch belts although I’m sure they work fine. We use the shoulder belt and we’ve never seen any other seat get as secure as our seat. When we try to move the seat side to side, the van moves instead. The beauty of the system is that after you’ve tightened the lap part of the belt down as far as you can, you then slide the shoulder part of the belt into a slot that latches down on the side of the seat. Once you’ve done this, the belt doesn’t develop any slack. Then for good measure, you attach the tether to the underside of the rear of the seat (or a tether hook in some cars). This seat doesn’t move after that.

Rear facing, the seat could be improved. This is why the seat doesn’t get 5 stars from me. The side lock down mechanism is tightened more by the thickness of the belt. Unfortunately, it can pop open without much pressure. (As a side note, the lockdown on the side of our older Roundabout works great. It is a different design. I’m not sure if Britax thought they were improving and have changed the design or if they have a different lockdown on this seat.) The annoying thing about this is that you have to continuously check to see if it has released.

2. Condition of the straps is important. I haven’t seen one manufacturer compare to the quality of the straps. The shoulder straps are thick and wide. They don’t fold up on themselves or get tangled. They are also wide across your child’s shoulders.

3. Child’s comfort. The side guards around the head are great for when they are getting tired and the safety foam is the same as you would find in bike helmets.

Overall, the seat is great. If I could have given it 4.5 stars, I would have. The rear facing problem was minor to us because we could use our Roundabout rear facing, but for someone who needs to use it rear facing for a while, it might be more of a problem. I’m hoping Britax improves that one thing, but overall, this seat is highly recommended by me.

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Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive Diapers, Size 2 (12-18 Lbs), Economy Plus Pack, 152 Diapers

Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive Diapers, Size 2 (12-18 Lbs), Economy Plus Pack, 152 Diapers

Best Diapers for First Time Parents of Newborns
These are the diapers that we were introduced to at the hospital. Although the regular Swaddlers are very good, these sensitive diapers have the moisture indicator. It is a yellow stripe that turns blue if there is any moisture in the diaper and we find it to be invaluable. Some may find it gimmicky, but when we first brought our baby home from the hospital, we didn’t know about the sensitive vs. regular Swaddlers and had a pack of regular Swaddlers. We were also paranoid about ensuring he didn’t become dehydrated. You need to count and track both the wet and soiled diapers. Since disposable diapers are now so over engineered, a mildly wet diaper is not always perceptible. After a panicked call to the pediatrician, she suggested putting a cotton ball or tissue in the diaper to see if there was indeed some moisture. If we had been using the sensitive Swaddlers from the start, we would have had more peace of mind because the blue strip would have been readily apparent.

We tried other brands for newborns and found these to be the best. Huggies was the second best, and while they had better Velcro closures, the diapers were far bulkier (even when dry), had a plastic-y smell, and tended to smear the baby poop all over the butt. The Swaddlers are slimmer, have no discernible smell and the poop tends to stay put because of the mesh interior fabric, making clean up easier and any ensuing diaper rash smaller in surface area.

I highly recommend this product and think this is the finest disposable diaper. Although this is a premium product, the Amazon price is quite fair at around $40 for 180 diapers, yielding a unit cost of approximately $0.23. At a Target in the metro-NY area where I live, it’s $18.99 for 74, a unit cost of about $0.26.

Note to new parents – only buy 180 diapers when your baby’s weight falls towards the lower end of the size range. We’re stuck with an opened but practically full bag of newborn size diapers and were surprised when out baby boy was born at 8.5 pounds – we were expecting a seven-pounder. It became pretty clear that the newborn size was a bit too small. We quickly discovered that it’s better to have a slightly larger diaper than one that is slightly too small.

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Diaper Cover

Thirsties Diaper Cover- Celery, Small

When my husband and I decided to cloth diaper our son, we first invested in one of each of the most popular kinds of cloth diapers, including both prefolds and pocket systems. For wraps we tried the Bummis super whisper wrap and the thirsties. The Thirsties are by far and away better.
1. They fit his body better because the waist can accommodate the typical baby budda belly more comfortably.
2. The cut of the legs fits his legs better, whereas the Bummis always gaps.
3. The fabric of the Thirsties is more flexible. By comparison, the Bummis feels cheap and stiff.
4. The gusset at the leg of the Thirsties prevents leaks and also better distributes the tightness of the elastic better so it doesn’t cut into my baby’s skin.

When using them with the prefolds, you have to make certain that the wrap completely encloses the prefold diaper around the leg. If it doesn’t, you can get leaks. But if you fit them correctly and make sure the cotton prefold is entirely tucked inside, they are perfect!