Can I just recommend @ safeintheseat on Instagram for all your carseat safety, etc needs!! She's awesome. Seriously, check her out and follow if you aren't already.
AFM, we have a UPPAbaby Mesa and a Nuna Rava. No complaints with either. I bought them for the wool fabric since flame retardant free is important to me. A note on the Rava though...it's heavy AF, first of all, which is fine for us since we don't ever move it. In my car, it does not recline enough back to make me feel comfortable with an infant, despite it being "safe" and designed for one. Always check your seat with your car, your seats may be angled in a way that you can't get horizontal enough for a baby. It shouldn't be an issue with infant seats though. Just convertibles.
@pajamstagrams good rec! I’ll check her out more in depth!
We had the Britax B-Safe infant with the base in each car. It was a heavy car seat but very safe and steel reinforced. Very easy to take the insert out to wash.
At first birthday we swapped out the baby seat for a rear/forward facing and got the Britax Marathon click tight for my car as she is in it 95% of the time. Great car seat, heavvvvy though and again another seat with steel.
I did go to a fire station with both seats and had them installed and they taught me how to install them myself. It had given me peace of mind when i take it out to clean and reinstall that i am doing it correctly.
We love our nuna car seats...have a pipa and a rava and then my oldest has a britax clicktight harnessed booster (grow with you. If you think you will need to move the seats between cars, I highly recommend the clicktight options that Nuna and britax offer. It takes all the guesswork out of the install and makes it easy. They are pricy but think about their purpose and how long you will use them. My first was in the rava until 3.5 and can still comfortably fit RF or FF in it at almost 5. When baby outgrows the pipa I will move them to the rava, H to the britax and buy the big one a seatbelt booster seat.
Another site for good car seat info is the Car Seats for the Littles FB page.
We use Diono. Started with them because they have convertible seats from infant to 120# so, really, should only need 1 seat for the entire time your LO is in a car seat! However, RF for an infant we found them super long and to get the right angle on the seat, there was hardly any room for a front passenger. Once you can put them more upright (still RF), the issue is gone. But, for that reason, we did get a Graco Click Connect for our second, which still has enough time before expiring for our soon-to-be third. Also went with Diono because our plan all along was to have 3 kids and Diono has models which are low profile and state they can fit 3 across the back in most vehicles. Fingers crossed!
@annashaf I've heard good things from friends with dionos re: helping with carsickness and being narrow, so hopefully it fits the bill!
We had a Cosco infant click in seat that we got from friends (before it's expiry date, no accidents or anything). We got a graco4eva platinum on super sale when we needed a new seat - it's supposedly good for the entire time they are in the carseat and converts to a booster. We've been happy with it.
I guess we'll need a new click in car seat though so I'm happy to look into some of these recs!
I’ve been eyeing the Nuna Pipa!! But I have a feeling we’ll end up with another Chicco Keyfit. I’m kindof one of those “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” types and we’ve loved all our Chicco seats. Easy to clean, never problems installing or fitting in the cars, not super heavy.
I also recommend "the car seat lady" (Google her) for info on specific car models as it relates to car seats. Aka, what car seat positions are allowed in different models, "are all 3 3rd row positions available?" "Anchors in all positions?", Those type of questions.
I've been going between the UPPAbaby Mesa and the Nuna Pipa. I'm leaning towards the Pipa because I've seen in some reviews that babies can get sweaty in the Mesa and with LO being in it all summer I wouldn't want a grumpy sweaty baby when we're in the car lol
I haven't looked at this category specifically yet but I like to check out The Wirecutter for recommendations on basically everything and I know they have a good baby stuff section.
+1 for the car seat lady. She actually lives here in Baltimore and we had an appointment with her and she installed my daughter’s carseat 7 years ago and she taught us all about proper install. She is great!!
This baby will go in a Chicco Keyfit. We need to purchase a van or some sort of new vehicle prior to May ideally. We cannot currently fit 3 seats across in our current vehicles. So that’s fun. If we aren’t able to do that before the baby arrives, we will just remove 7yo’s booster before traveling to hospital and figure it out later. I can’t even think about buying a car right now!
Since we have to carry around two seats one of my biggest focuses was getting something lightweight. I really wanted the Nuna Pipa Lite but buying two was cost prohibitive. We ended up getting Graco Snugride 35 Lite LX. They were on sale at Target so we just went for it. They are pretty lightweight and we have only ever had Graco carseats for all of our kids so it will be fine.
Married 11.12.11 JB 08.02.13 EC 12.11.15 GE 04.04.19 #4 & #5 due 05.05.22
@jackdetroit I had the Chicco infant seat with my first 2 but it’s expired now so I went with the snug fit 35 and I’m happy with how much lighter it is. I imagine the Lite is even better. All of our convertibles (and we’ve had enough for 2 vehicles plus extra for grandparents) have been graco and they’ve been good for us as well.
We were gifted the UPPABaby travel system (Mesa car seat and Vista stroller). I’ve seen mixed reviews about the Mesa - easy to install but heavy and some babies can’t stand being in it/sweat a ton while in the seat. We’ll see but I’m pretty sure we’ll have a positive experience with it! When she’s bigger we got the Graco 4Ever convertible seat.
We’re just reusing DS’s car seat for this one…I think it’s the Graco Slim Fit (we’ve had gracos for all 3 kids for their infant carriers and tbh I feel like you can’t beat the price). My oldest 2 are also in Gracos now but I can’t remember which 😂 DD1 is just in a high back booster while DD2 is in a 5 point harness booster. DS is in the Graco 4Ever I think
Re: Product Spotlight: Car Seats
AFM, we have a UPPAbaby Mesa and a Nuna Rava. No complaints with either. I bought them for the wool fabric since flame retardant free is important to me. A note on the Rava though...it's heavy AF, first of all, which is fine for us since we don't ever move it. In my car, it does not recline enough back to make me feel comfortable with an infant, despite it being "safe" and designed for one. Always check your seat with your car, your seats may be angled in a way that you can't get horizontal enough for a baby. It shouldn't be an issue with infant seats though. Just convertibles.
At first birthday we swapped out the baby seat for a rear/forward facing and got the Britax Marathon click tight for my car as she is in it 95% of the time. Great car seat, heavvvvy though and again another seat with steel.
Another site for good car seat info is the Car Seats for the Littles FB page.
for that reason, we did get a Graco Click Connect for our second, which still has enough time before expiring for our soon-to-be third. Also went with Diono because our plan all along was to have 3 kids and Diono has models which are low profile and state they can fit 3 across the back in most vehicles. Fingers crossed!
We had a Cosco infant click in seat that we got from friends (before it's expiry date, no accidents or anything). We got a graco4eva platinum on super sale when we needed a new seat - it's supposedly good for the entire time they are in the carseat and converts to a booster. We've been happy with it.
I guess we'll need a new click in car seat though so I'm happy to look into some of these recs!
This baby will go in a Chicco Keyfit. We need to purchase a van or some sort of new vehicle prior to May ideally. We cannot currently fit 3 seats across in our current vehicles. So that’s fun. If we aren’t able to do that before the baby arrives, we will just remove 7yo’s booster before traveling to hospital and figure it out later. I can’t even think about buying a car right now!
JB 08.02.13
EC 12.11.15
GE 04.04.19
#4 & #5 due 05.05.22