The biggest piece of financial advice I can give is that neither my wife nor I believe a van is an immediate necessity with triplets. Relative to others on the forum I’m a weak mustachian, but my wife hasn’t even heard of MMM. We bought a van recently, and don’t feel like it’s made a significant improvement to our quality of life. It will certainly be nice once the kids can buckle themselves in, but we could have waited another few years to buy.
The problem with triplets and a van is that at least 1 car seat is not accessible from outside the van. If you put 3 car seats across the second row, the middle seat is hard to reach, just like in a sedan. If you put 2 car seats in the middle row and one car seat in the third row, you still have to climb in the third row (around the captain’s chairs, which are now difficult to move since there’s a car seat in each of them) to buckle the kid in. You can remove a captain’s chair and put 2 car seats in the third row, but you’re climbing to the third row twice to buckle kids and the van has lost seating capacity for other adults.
The bottom line is that I don’t think there’s an easy way to organize 3 car seats for young triplets. If you think of something, let me know.
It's possible to fit 3 of certain car seats in the rear seat of some sedans, so a van is not an immediate need. I’m not sure if posting links is acceptable here, but you can use your favorite search engine to look for ‘three car seats across the back seat’ and similar phrases.
There is an intricate relationship between your schedule, your car seats, your vehicle, and your strollers. It’s worth spending some time anticipating what your schedule will be, and assessing what your schedule actually is after the kids come home to determine if a van would be useful.
We used a Honda Accord to haul the kids for about a year. Behind the driver, we used a Chicco KeyFit 30 (infant carrier that clicks into a base that’s installed in the car). In the middle and behind the passenger, we had 2 Diono R100s (convertible car seats that stayed in the car). When the Chicco carrier was removed, it was fairly easy to put a kid in the middle seat by kneeling next to or sitting on the Chicco base. Once we arrived at places, we transferred the kids to a double stroller and single stroller. (We were fortunate to have multiple adults at each doctor’s appointment. It helps to calm the kids down after all the shots.)
The first 6 months, we only took the kids to the doctor because we were able to have someone at home with the kids. It was impractical to take young triplets anywhere. You have to have multiple changes of clothes, diapers, bottles made ahead of time, and the energy/desire to leave your house. We had no desire to drive anywhere with the kids unless necessary.
Around 6 months, we got braver and started taking them out maybe once a week, either to church or a fast-casual restaurant. Our vehicle/car seat/stroller situation wasn’t perfect, but we went out so infrequently that wasn’t much of an inconvenience.
Triple strollers can be a handful. They’re either very long or very wide, and are almost certainly heavy. If enough adults are available, you may prefer to use a double stroller and a single stroller, or to wear one or two in a Baby Bjorn or similar. They make double baby Bjorn's. That said, it always seemed like a lot of work to load a kid in a Baby Bjorn, especially from a car seat.
For a single baby, the car seat carrier/bucket system would be very convenient. The infant carrier clicks into the base in the car, and fits in a stroller too. You don't have to unbuckle the baby from the carrier to move from the car to the stroller. The problem is I couldn't find a stroller that fit 3 carriers at the same time. You either need to have one kid in a regular car seat, or have 2 strollers to handle 3 carriers.
Car seats might be worth buying new (I bought ours new) since only specific brands and models are narrow enough to fit three across. Ours are convertible, so they work for 5 pound babies up through the booster seat phase. And they kept us from buying a van for a year.
Random notes
Some convertible seats only work for babies that weigh 5 pounds or more. Our kids were sent home before that, so we had to borrow other seats for a few months.
Regardless of what you read online, try each car seat out in person first. BuyBuyBaby let me take a car seat out to me car to confirm it fit.
