Oh yeah.
It started out the same as our crib shopping. I was sitting on the couch reading Baby Bargains, telling DH about our different options as far as car seats. Even after hours of discussion, we haven't completely settled on whether to go with one convertible car seat instead of an infant seat and then a convertible car seat. We both agree that the convenience of the infant car seat would be nice so we can just keep the baby in the seat while going into stores, houses, etc. However, once we got to BRU, we discovered infant seats that can carry up to 32 pounds! That would get us to age 1, thereby eliminating the need for a convertible car seat at age one. We could just go to a forward-facing car seat.
Except there didn't seem to be any forward-facing car seats and the few that we saw weren't any sort of cost saving over the convertible car seat. So why pay the extra for the bigger infant seat?
Our options:
Our favorite infant seat (up to 22 pounds):
Ignore the colors. The seat is the Graco Snugride.
Our other favorite infant seat is the Chicco Keyfit
Graco also makes an infant seat that goes up to 32 pounds but is more expensive and, really, who is going to want to lug a baby around that's 32 pounds...plus the 8 pounds for the seat???
Then, somewhere between 6 months and a year, baby will move into a convertible car seat. Who knows which one of those we'll choose? But it seem inevitable, really.
You'd think that we're doing great here, even if we are a bit overwhelmed. Then we headed into the strollers. Ugh. A stroller *should* be really easy, but I don't think it is. They make these strollers that the infant seat can snap into, which seems great! This means you still don't have to take baby out of the infant seat to put them into a stroller to take a walk or walk the mall or something. But do we go with the entire travel system or just buy a stroller that the infant seat we choose fits into?
Then, on top of all of this, we *could* make the decision to get a convertible car seat like this:
This, above, is the Graco ComfortSport and is the most recommended convertible for infants.
If we went that route, we'd not have an infant seat to lug around, but we also wouldn't have to buy a new car seat when baby is 6-12 months old. We could get a stroller that is meant for a newborn to be able to lay in.
The stroller will depend entirely on what car seat options we go with.
Note: I started this entry 3/8/09 and am finishing on 3/12/09. Since then, some ladies on a message board I'm a part of have pretty much convinced me to start out with an infant seat. Now we just need to decide upon a brand. Of course, the new Baby Bargains comes out 4/25/09, so we might wait to get the new ratings from there before making a final decision. Or not (can you tell I'm getting impatient???).
5 comments:
We hated shopping for a carseat & stroller; it really was incredibly overwhelming. I was about in tears shopping at BRU, even after narrowing down our choices through Baby Bargains. We ended up with the Graco SafeSeat & Metrolite stroller (fabulous!).
The infant seat does get heavy to lug around (esp. with my huge baby!), but it is so great not to have to wake him up to get him out of the car and go in for a quick errand or a meal out. I guess that's a little bigger deal with a winter newborn, but still well worth the money for any baby.
Oh Allison, thank you so much for writing these posts and making me feel like I'm not alone in being overwhelmed.
I made the mistake of lying down to go to sleep last night and trying to read a little bit more of Baby Bargains in bed. Bad idea. I just got myself totally stressed out again.
I also appreciate the above poster. I too thought it would be easy once I narrowed down choices using Baby Bargains, but I get to the store and get just as overwhelmed as ever.
Good luck! I hope you can reach a decision. I swear I'm close to putting all the choices in a hat and just picking one that way.
Oh, one more thought: I liked the Graco Snugride too, but when I played with it and strollers in the store, I didn't like how it locked in to the stroller. You can still kind of lift it up when it's locked in and that's weird to me. Did you notice that at all? If it doesn't bother you, no big deal, but I didn't notice that at first and then I did and it bugged me.
With the Keyfit, you lock it into the stroller and it doesn't budge, it seems.
OK, I promise I'll stop commenting soon. But I was just on BabyBargains.com and it says the 8th edition comes out April 3, which is sooner than you thought. Now I'm wondering if I should wait a few more weeks, too.
Thanks for your thoughts and condolences, Em! (btw--I added your blog in my reader--I can't believe I wasn't already reading it!)
Mandy, I read on Amazon that it's being released 4/25. Weird. I pre-ordered through there. Well, if you get your copy before I do, I can just ask you questions ;) Oh, and I didn't notice that about the Snugride, but I'm not sure it would have bothered me. I was more concerned about being able to unsnap it easily.
Oh, and I'm totally LOL about putting choices in a hat. That's how I feel about pediatrician, baby gear...all of it!!!
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