Group 3 car seat dilemma...

Little E is hitting the age where she is starting to look a little squished in her group 2 car seats. She is exceptionally tall for her age and her head is starting to creep towards the top of the seat which is an indicator she is ready to move up to a bigger seat.

For our recent holiday to Spain we needed to buy a light car seat which would be easy to carry around the airport etc. We have been loyal fans of Maxi Cosi car seats from word go. Group 1 we had the Cabriofix with family fix base then we moved onto the Pebble with the same family fix base in one car and the swivel action Axiss (which is my personal favourite) in the other. I will post more about these seats another time but the problem with them for our trip was the weight - they are crazy heavy and cumbersome. The Axiss weighs about 14kg and in my current condition I just can't lug it around anymore which posed a problem for this trip and generally when dropping Little E at grandparents houses for babysitting etc.

So we decided to purchase a seat based mainly on weight - it would be easy on holiday plus become the spare car seat for friends and family to use and wouldn't require a crane to lift it. After much research on my indispensable advice service (Amazon customer reviews)we purchased a multi stage BebeStyle seat which can function as a group 2 seat from 9 months and has a removable harness so can be used as a group 3 car seat with the standard seatbelt as they grow bigger. The back can also be removed to become a booster seat. This was handy as I felt escape artist Little E would probably work out how to slip the seatbelt within 5 minutes so the harness was appealing. But the main selling point was the weight - approx 4kg! I admit this item was cheap(less than £30 including delivery) but I figured if it got damaged in the baggage hold then no tragedy at that cost.

The seat did exactly what it said on the tin and I could lift it easily with one hand. Once we worked out the krypton factor style instructions it was easy to put in the car and seemed quite sturdy. Machine washable covers were a bonus too, especially as we are still grappling with potty training. Little E seemed quite comfy in the seat and we were all very happy until... She fell asleep! This is what happened:

No proper recline function means stiff neck when sleeping = grumpy toddler...

Now, I'm not complaining. For the money we paid this is a very good value seat. It will be fine for occasional use as a spare but clearly this is not going to work as a permanent solution because Little E still loves to nap in the car and really at her age should still fit in her group 2 seats for another year to get the maximum value from them. When you look at the group 3 seats with a recline function the price sky rockets to well over £100. So back to the drawing board! Lots of research to do before we invest but I'll keep you updated on our progress (or lack of!)