worth the money

i am a huge fan of cheap baby stuff. All the clothes i buy for Gemma are either from Costco or Superstore. I never shop at Baby Gap or Children's Place or anything like that unless I have a gift card or something. I just can't justify paying more than like $10 for any item of baby clothing, not when they grow out of it so fast and not when it gets so darn dirty. 

When Gemma was a couple months old, BRU (Babies R Us) had a sale on their Safety 1st Alpha Omega convertible car seats. They were getting rid of the previous year's models and it was something like 40% off the regular price. Well Jesse and I practically ran over there and bought one for $100. Then we came home to find out it wouldn't fit in our Matrix, so we installed it in the Envoy. Whatever, we had time before Gemma had to move into that seat anyway. 

As time goes on, Gemma grows and puts on some more baby weight. We often use the Envoy so she has to sit in the A&O car seat more often (rear facing at this point). She hates this car seat, but i convince myself she will be better once she is forward facing. But i can see she is like jack-knifed and very uncomfortable. Give it time. Forward facing and she will be better. 

Not the case. She hates it even more forward facing. We bought a Britax Diplomat for the Matrix, which cost over triple what we paid for the A&O. But it was the only car seat that would fit in the Matrix comfortably rear-facing, so we caved and got it. She loves this seat. Forward facing, she loves it even more. We can drive somewhere without her turning blue from screaming so much. YAY!

So a few weeks ago, we decided the A&O has to go. We gave it to our cousin to try it with their baby, as babies are different and maybe Ruby wouldn't mind it so much. Yesterday i went and got the Britax Marathon from Kac'z Kids. Again, $300. BUT OH MY GOODNESS. today, we tried it out for the first and it proved that it was worth every stinking penny. Gemma was soooooooooooooooooooooo relaxed and comfortable in that thing. Then she passed out after 10 minutes of driving, not anywhere close to her nap time, and stayed asleep even when the car was parked (which never happens). She didn't throw a fuss, not once, and seemed to really like it. 

So i learned my lesson that with some things you just can't cheap out. Not if it can allow me to keep some of my sanity. LOL.