Car seats and strollers... I'm overwhelmed!

JessicaF5000 · February 2015

I'm starting a registry... Our first baby... And there are so many options, some of which have to go together as a pair. Where do you even start? I've heard of the brand graco so am tempted to just pick a well-reviewed pair of graco car seat and stroller, but I just don't know!! Suggestions anyone??

cbrtncanadian · February 2015

I've been slowly scoping out options as I've been to different stores and am also overwhelmed there are so many options... Time to review the literature and find out what's going to be functional and safe! I'm looking forward to the feedback on this thread!

finchfeeder80 · February 2015

There was a hugely informative thread on car seats a week or two ago. Search for car seats and choose the one started by, I believe, maplebaby. That should be a good starting point.

HoosOnFirst · February 2015

Yep, the recent thread was mucho helpful. It helped me narrow it down and I'm going with the Chicco Keyfit 30. I went to Babies R Us to see what stroller to go with. I think we are going the Bravo stroller with an extra "car seat caddy" stroller frame for emergencies or a lighter option.

CurlyMom78 · February 2015

We just bought ours today! We went with the Britax B Safe. It's crazy out there with your options!

KaLikeAWind · February 2015

Maplebaby's car seat thread was *awesome*. Really informative. DH and I are probably going to go with a Graco Click Connect system. I scoped out the possibilities online first then went to BRU to test drive the one I thought we would go with. All the choices ARE really intimidating, but I felt it was easier to go into the store with a 'favorite' in mind and basically try it on to make sure it was a good fit instead of trying on all the damned things there. Cut down on the salesperson hovering, too

brubabe · February 2015

A good friend and mom of two who is practical and smart suggested the Chico key fit 30. It is reasonable highly rated and so easy tho use in her opinion. instead of getting the whole travel system just buy the lightweight frame it will snap into ands when baby is older, get a nice umbrella stroller.

dancingpidge · February 2015

If anyone has a link to the other thread, that would be awesome. I am on bump mobile and can't figure out how to search past posts.

karaelaine1991 · February 2015

You access the search function by scrolling down to the bottom on the app - the bump just loves to make helpful features inconvenient to access! But I agree with PP, that thread will be hugely beneficial to you.

alcrimmins · February 2015

After reading maplebaby's original post check out
www.lucieslist.com

This site will help you answer a lot of questions. It can be very overwhelming.

laurendutch · February 2015

If I was to rebuy everything I would get the Chicco KeyFit 30 and the Chicco lightweight Plus where it's an umbrella stroller that you can snap the car seat into. We mostly used an umbrella stroller with my twins once they could sit up.

FirstTime41 · February 2015

Any stm's out there tall & had a stroller they did/didn't like because the handle was high/low? I live hours from any store but Walmart and it might be another month before I'm heading to the city for a weekend shopping trip when I can head back into a BBB or BRU... Last time the stroller section was soooo overwhelming! Thanks in advance!

CurlyMom78 · February 2015

That is what we are getting!

BabyBean54 · February 2015

We are getting the chicco keyfit 30 and already have the Uppababy Cruz! I basically researched safe car seats and then loved the uppababy brand so found one that was compatible with the chicco. We also registered for a chicco frame to surprise grandma with!!

dancegurl1118 · February 2015

After much researching and test strolling in BBB we went with the BOB motion stroller and Britax B safe car seat. Happy researching! Don't stress!

Kbchavez23 · February 2015

I am going with the Chicco keyfit 30 and the bravo trio stroller

lola2bee · February 2015

Also getting the Chicco keyfit 30 with an adapter for our bugaboo.

marcellaD4 · February 2015

I'm going with the chicco keyfit 30 bravo trio stroller!

porklump30 · February 2015

Do you have a Babies R Us or Buy Buy Baby near you? Your best bet is to go to a store where you can test lots of different models and see what works best for you. We picked our infant seat (Graco Snugride 30) based on it being the lightest weight we could find. It makes a big difference when you are lugging around a baby plus car seat weight! Our stroller is Baby Trend and the infant seat is compatible with it.

Mommaswizz · February 2015

We test drove (lol) the Britax B-safe stroller at BBB and loved it so we registered for that travel system. Truth be told, we loved the City Mini stroller but didn't want to make ourselves crazy with getting adapters for the Britax car seat since the cost would be more than if we just went with the travel system. We found the Britax stroller to be most comparable to the city mini. It was easy to steer and to snap the carseat in and out.

My recommendation is definitely go to the store and play with it. Is it easy to handle? To use the little parking brakes? To get the car seat in and out? Always better to touch and feel for youself (... that's what she said.... sorry i had to lol)

FloGirl82 · February 2015

One thing that helped me pick out our infant seat-we actually got the Graco travel system with the Snugride 30 seat-was taking into consideration the size of my car. We will be using my car mostly to transport the baby, (we are getting a base for my husband's truck too). My friend gave me that advice-I have a Camry, and the Britax just seemed SO big and to take up a lot of room, and it seemed difficult to get the seat/carrier itself in and out of the car.(My friends with kids have the Britax and the Graco, and the Graco worked so much better and was lighter for me as well). So, consider the size of your car as well when deciding on an infant seat/carrier. Hopefully that makes sense.

SaraGore83 · February 2015

Britax b-safe stroller and car seat combo is what we went with! It has great reviews!

maryellensaunders · February 2015

I am also having a difficult time choosing. My husband and I were goig to buy the bob motion with the britax car seat but the car seat didn't fit in our car. We have a hatchback! We live n Canada so any double wheels are a no no because snow gets caught between them. We are considering the peg perego car seat and book or booklet stroller now because the car seat fits. Anyone have any thoughts on this stroller combo or other solutions that would work for us? The peg perego is expensive and I want to make sure it's worth the money before buying it.

KaLikeAWind · February 2015

Also consider the weight of the stroller. The stroller hubby wanted is a jogger, and most reviewers said they liked it but it was "SO heavy" or "WAY too heavy". So we went to the store and folded it and pretended to lift it into our car. For us it did end up being on the heavier side, buy I didn't think it was overly heavy. It was also pretty large, even folded up, so we had to eyeball it folded to see just how large it really was, since it was likely going to live folded up in the back of our car all the time. I can tell ya, if I knew I was going to be lifting that beast up the front steps every day to bring it into the house and store it in the closet I probably would have vetoed DH's choice and gone for something smaller and more lightweight.

surfingmama · February 2015

It's definitely an overwhelming process but research online and when you go to the store push the stroller around the aisles and pick up the infant carriers to see how heavy they feel.

Originally I wanted the city mini and i do think it's a great stroller but for $50 more I'm registering for the Phil and Teds smart lux because of all the options for seating positions--it can recline all the way back for a bassinet. Plus the reviews were great.
The Chicco key fit infant carrier adapts with an additional adaptor peice.

JessicaF5000 · February 2015

Update! We went shopping and I settled on the brittax 35 travel system. The more I thought about how much I'd be using it and getting in and out of car the more I wanted a small and lightweight option. So happy with my decision!!

NotISaidtheCat · March 2015

I don't know that this is a popular opinion, but I found with my first that a stroller was much more of a hassle than any help at all. Hubby and I always preferred to wear baby in a carrier, hands down. We've chosen to completely forgo any strollers this time around and picked a car seat with a comfortable handle grip that was lightweight and easy to get in/out of the car.

janat1717 · March 2015

@NotISaidtheCat We are also forgoing the stroller for baby wearing. We were thinking of going with a convertible car seat then like a Diono since we won't need to switch cars. That's taking up a lot of space in our smaller wagon right away though... Decisions, decisions

MairaNSoto · March 2015

I just bought the chicco key fit 30, I looked for hours on the safest choice and consumer reports this one. I also got the chicco cortina that's a double stroller so my 2 yr old and baby can be in one stroller.

Frogger5 · March 2015

janit368 said:
@NotISaidtheCat We are also forgoing the stroller for baby wearing. We were thinking of going with a convertible car seat then like a Diono since we won't need to switch cars. That's taking up a lot of space in our smaller wagon right away though... Decisions, decisions

We are not getting a stroller either. I hate them. We debated going with a convertible right off, but I read about how the infant seats are really better for their spines because of the recline, and it sold me! Plus, just because we're not using a stroller doesn't mean we wouldn't ever want to get the baby out of the car still in the car seat. I'm imagining especially that baby fell asleep on the way home, and if you bring the whole thing inside he could finish his nap in the seat. Also possibly bringing the seat into a restaurant would be a nice option for the same reason. That's what seems to make sense for us, but I'm a FTM, so what do I know? We bought a Maxi-Cosi Mico for $100, so it's not that big of a deal to buy another seat later on.

Kovak · March 2015

I think I mentioned this in another thread but when I was pregnant with DS I did a crap ton of research. I looked up safety ratings and customer reviews and satisfaction ratings. As far as safety goes, the Chicco Ketfit and the Britax B-Safe are pretty comparable. When it came to customer satisfaction, the Britax came out ahead. I went to the local stores and tried out a bunch of car seats and strollers. The Britax B-Agile stroller was much smoother and earlier to manuver than the Chicco stroller, IMO. Then one day, while shopping at Target, I found the Britax B-Safe for 50% off. It was the red seat, which I wanted the black, but I just couldn't pass it up. I don't regret it at all! I am very happy with it.
One more thing, some stores will allow you to take the seat and stroller out to your car to try them out, accompanied by an associate, of course.

Good luck everyone! It is really overwhelming!

amhowell14 · March 2015

Frogger5 said:

janit368 said:
@NotISaidtheCat We are also forgoing the stroller for baby wearing. We were thinking of going with a convertible car seat then like a Diono since we won't need to switch cars. That's taking up a lot of space in our smaller wagon right away though... Decisions, decisions
We are not getting a stroller either. I hate them. We debated going with a convertible right off, but I read about how the infant seats are really better for their spines because of the recline, and it sold me! Plus, just because we're not using a stroller doesn't mean we wouldn't ever want to get the baby out of the car still in the car seat. I'm imagining especially that baby fell asleep on the way home, and if you bring the whole thing inside he could finish his nap in the seat. Also possibly bringing the seat into a restaurant would be a nice option for the same reason. That's what seems to make sense for us, but I'm a FTM, so what do I know? We bought a Maxi-Cosi Mico for $100, so it's not that big of a deal to buy another seat later on.

Just an fyi, convertible seats recline.

KonaCoffeeBean · March 2015

amhowell14 said:

Frogger5 said:

janit368 said:
@NotISaidtheCat We are also forgoing the stroller for baby wearing. We were thinking of going with a convertible car seat then like a Diono since we won't need to switch cars. That's taking up a lot of space in our smaller wagon right away though... Decisions, decisions
We are not getting a stroller either. I hate them. We debated going with a convertible right off, but I read about how the infant seats are really better for their spines because of the recline, and it sold me! Plus, just because we're not using a stroller doesn't mean we wouldn't ever want to get the baby out of the car still in the car seat. I'm imagining especially that baby fell asleep on the way home, and if you bring the whole thing inside he could finish his nap in the seat. Also possibly bringing the seat into a restaurant would be a nice option for the same reason. That's what seems to make sense for us, but I'm a FTM, so what do I know? We bought a Maxi-Cosi Mico for $100, so it's not that big of a deal to buy another seat later on.
Just an fyi, convertible seats recline.

Unless you have a very large car, you may be limited in how much you can recline a convertible. Rear-facing convertibles take up a ton of space.

HoosOnFirst · March 2015

We will be going with a keyfit or britax -tbd this weekend after some test drives - but I'll suggest Lucies List website as a really good place to start your research.

Frogger5 · March 2015

amhowell14 said:

Frogger5 said:

janit368 said:
@NotISaidtheCat We are also forgoing the stroller for baby wearing. We were thinking of going with a convertible car seat then like a Diono since we won't need to switch cars. That's taking up a lot of space in our smaller wagon right away though... Decisions, decisions
We are not getting a stroller either. I hate them. We debated going with a convertible right off, but I read about how the infant seats are really better for their spines because of the recline, and it sold me! Plus, just because we're not using a stroller doesn't mean we wouldn't ever want to get the baby out of the car still in the car seat. I'm imagining especially that baby fell asleep on the way home, and if you bring the whole thing inside he could finish his nap in the seat. Also possibly bringing the seat into a restaurant would be a nice option for the same reason. That's what seems to make sense for us, but I'm a FTM, so what do I know? We bought a Maxi-Cosi Mico for $100, so it's not that big of a deal to buy another seat later on.
Just an fyi, convertible seats recline.

I just heard that it's not the same (less deep) angle, and also, I have a small car (Nissan Versa), so that's a factor. I'm sure the convertibles are fine; if they were really that bad for babies they probably wouldn't allow them, the infant seat just makes more sense to me. I didn't actually try any of the convertibles, so it's totally not a well-researched opinion, I just don't want to stress about it, so our decision is made.

kejaed · March 2015

My husband and I are looking at buying the Chicco Bravo stroller. But it's only available in the US and we are from Canada. Does anyone know if it comes with both English and French stickers/warnings on it? This is one of the criteria for bringing it back across the border.

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Car seats and strollers... I'm overwhelmed!

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