This is really a challenge. I started by choosing a car seat (the Graco 4Ever convertible option) that would last through the baby's toddler years and up, but then when I moved over to strollers I realized my choice wouldn't attach into my stroller pick. Then I moved onto travel systems so I could purchase a stroller/car-seat combo but none of the car seats that come in these combos are convertible through the toddler years (in which case, you'd need to purchase a new car seat once the infant one is grown out of). I assume these companies planned it this way so we'd be forced to buy more stuff. Any help/advice/work-arounds?
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I don't think any convertible car seats fit in a stroller. If you want a car seat that clicks into a stroller, you'll need to buy an infant seat and eventually a convertible seat when your child exceeds the RF limits for the seat.
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Any seat that will click in to a stroller will be a bucket seat. There is no way for a bucket seat to be convertible for toddler years. Just FYI my husband and I bought a Graco 4ever and returned it right away because we found it very difficult to get a proper install, so definitely try it out in your car within the return window to be sure it fits well.
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We actually haven't used any of our stuff yet but we picked by researching car seats first on Consumer Reports. We decided to go with the Chicco Keyfit 30 based on reviews and then found that Chicco has a new travel system called the Bravo Trio. I was hesitant to get a travel system because it seems like not many people like them, but I liked that the Bravo stroller can be used through the toddler years. It was easy to use when we tested it out in the store so that sold us on it. We'll have to get a convertible car seat eventually and I'm hoping to get one that will convert to a booster seat when LO no longer needs to be in a car seat.
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Agree with Sunny
I'm going with a carrier that clicks into an actual stroller (not just a frame), so that at least the stroller outlives infant years.
I'm pretty sure it would be more hassle than it's worth to have to uninstall and reinstall a full car seat into a stroller any time you wanted to use it.
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I don't think there are hardly any portable carseats that last through the toddler years.
usually you have to choose between a car seat that they can be used through toddler years (a convertible seat) or a portable seat that they will outgrow and need to be replaced around their first birthday.
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I don't think you can get away with not having two separate things! Unless you want to forgo the bucket, and just do convertible and stroller? We couldn't have done that b/c DD was born in Dec.
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The thing is that technology is ever changing and no matter what you buy today, something new and better will be released in 6 months.
The best thing that I did was to wait in purchasing things until my son was born, so I could eliminate a lot of products based on our actual lifestyle, not what I thought it would be.
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@leighleigh: Here's what we did - we wanted an infant carrier, so we did the Chicco Keyfit 30. We also knew we wanted a jogging stroller, so we got the BOB jogger with an adapter for the carrier. We used this as our main stroller as well as the jogger.
Once he turned 1, we bought a convertible car seat and had him rear facing until 2, then flipped him. At that time we went with the Britax Marathon 70. It's good for him through 70 pounds and 49 inches (he'll be 3 at the end of this month and he's not even 35 pounds or 40 inches yet).
The nice thing about our BOB is that he still fits in it though we don't use it as much. When we want to go for a run, he'll come along, but he much prefers to walk when we go shopping or sit in the shopping cart at grocery stores.
You can switch out the BOB with a stroller travel system and have the same effect, but we're big runners which is why we splurged on the BOB. If you want the infant carrier for ease, you'll need to get a bigger car seat once the baby outgrows the limits.
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@leighleigh: There are a couple strollers, I think, where you can attach bucket seats and convertible seats. We have the Mountain Buggy Nano, where you can attach many infant seats (take a look at the website to see which seats it is compatible with) and can also attach the Combi Coccoro convertible seat. It's very helpful for us in the city, as we're using the carseats in taxis and don't want to lug around a huge convertible seat without attaching it to a stroller...
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Thanks everyone! I'm a FTM (clearly!!) and am in the midst of figuring all this stuff out. Understood now that I can't have both a convertible seat as well as one that clicks into the stroller... the research continues! I like the idea of getting feedback/reviews through Consumer Reports. I know for sure that we're looking for a jogger stroller--despite not being a huge runner, it just seems more easily maneuverable and I'd love to have the option to run with LO if the mood strikes.
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If I could do it again, I wouldn't do a travel system. I would've just used the snap n go with the bucket seat. Then I would have gotten a better stroller that grew with my child.
Also, I got rid of the bucket seats fast because they are so heavy. As soon as my boys could sit well, we changed to a rear facing convertible seat.
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@leighleigh: If you want to use a convertible car seat right off the bat you could just get a stroller that has a bassinet attachment so the stroller can be used from birth without having to attach a car seat.
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Have you checked out Lucies List yet? It's saved me a lot of wondering how to figure out what I need.
http://www.lucieslist.com/baby-registry-basics/
Also, I drive a small car, so I started by googling what would fit in my car.
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@MaryM: thanks! this seems really helpful
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We chose the stroller we wanted and then chose our infant carseat out of the small number of carseats that could attach to it. In our case, the stroller was more important because I have a walking commute to get her to daycare and we use the stroller everyday vs the carseat only 1-2x per week.
We ended up with a city mini (although eventually upgraded to GT) with a britax b-safe.
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@catlady: do you like your Brittax? I'm leaning towards that stroller at this point in time
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@leighleigh: If you can, go to a baby store and try a few of them out. We were actually at LLBean over the weekend and I checked out the newest version of the BOB and loved it just as much as our older version. But there are a ton of joggers, and some are harder to handle than others. I felt like the BOB was so lightweight, but it still took some getting used to when I started running with it. Now it's second nature!
We got an old jogger from someone that we gave to my ILs so we didn't have to lug a stroller back and forth to their house, and it was so hard for me to get used to. So don't be afraid to go and stroll one around Babies R Us
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@leighleigh: We liked it! It wasn't too bad to install and when we had a policeman inspect our installation, he complimented us and said it was a very safe choice. My one and only complaint was that my baby seemed to sweat in it (however she runs hot). We will be happy to use it again for #2 when he/she arrives though. You need to buy an adapter to get it to work with the citi mini (or gt) but it wasn't too expensive, if I remember correctly. Some of the other carseat adapters were more pricey. It was also really easy to attach and detach to both the stroller and the base in the car.
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@leighleigh: I still think one of the best things you can do is go to a BuyBuyBaby and Babysrus and just test drive a bunch of strollers. We use our stroller a ton - so I was fine with that being a driving force.
I thought I was going to love one stroller (Britax Be Ready) and ended up falling in love with the Britax B agile...lucky for us Britax has amazing reviews on their car seats so we were lucky to like their stroller the best!
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It was pretty easy for us to pick out a car seat. We drive a Nissan and they publish guides to car seats for each of their vehicles. That helped me narrow down our options in our price range and I chose from there.
Originally, I wanted only one stroller, but I ended up with three! We used a Graco snap-n-go with our infant seat, a BOB jogging stroller, and a Bumbleride Flyer (discontinued model). The thin about jogging strollers is that they are bulky. We can put our in our Versa, but it has to go in the back seat because we can't get it in the trunk without taking off the front wheel. So that's something else to consider when looking for car seats/strollers.
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My OB has it plastered everywhere that babies are only supposed to be in car seats when they are in the car, so I didn't purchase a car seat that fit anywhere except for the car. I got a stroller I loved because we walk SO much.
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@looch: we're going to take this approach. Amazon makes it so easy to just wait and see.
@leighleigh: for aesthetic purposes I was able to quickly narrow down my stroller choices (I'm a Britax fan too). All of the strollers I liked had a fairly short list of travel-system compatible Infant car seats. Then, I was able to research the car seats. (ETA: I have since decided not to get an infant car seat at all)
One option is to go with is a reversible stroller, if having your baby facing you is important, and getting the convertible car seat only.
MomStrollerReview was helpful for selecting the stroller and CarSeatBlog was helpful for car seats.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: That's what I'm doing - straight to a convertible car seat and a rear-facing stroller (and planning on baby wearing). The infant car seat/stroller systems seem to be convenient for a few months, but are ultimately too heavy/bulky/outgrow-able to be pragmatic (IMHO!).
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I think the best thing you can do is think through all of the ways you plan to use things and think about your lifestyle. Do you drive a lot? If so, having a bucket seat that clicks in and out of car and the stroller can be invaluable. Do you walk in an urban environment more? Then maybe a convertible seat and a stroller with a bassinet option would work for you.
Think about things like the size of your car and trunk, and can you fold the stroller easily yourself?
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I would go to a place like Buy Buy Babies or Babies R Us and look at what they offer and talk to a sales person about your needs and budget. I find it a lot easier to make gear decisions when I see things in person.
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If I had to do it over, I'd skip the bucket and go straight to a convertible car seat. My DS rarely sleeps in the car and usually wakes up when it stops moving. He is almost 28 inches at 4 months, and he appears to only have 2 inches left before he grows out if it. Plus, the darn thing is so heavy with him over 16 lbs that I hurt my back taking it out of the car last week. I've decided to keep it in the car and stop lugging it around.
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@leighleigh: I have the Britax B-Agile stroller. I bought it as a travel system with the car seat as both seemed to get good reviews. I like the stroller a lot. It is light-weight, folds easily, and has great maneuverability. It's a stroller that LO can easily grow into. I used the car seat with the stroller for only the first three months. Now DS just uses the stroller, but it is sometimes useful to just throw the car seat into the stroller if you are running errands instead of taking them out of the car and rebuckling them in. I do also go running with my stroller, but not sure how well it would do with more wooded trails. But, I don't need those features and the stroller is considerably less expensive than others.
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Honestly, you just take a stab at what you *think* will work best for your family and then you adjust as you go. I would shy away from the idea that you are going to get one thing that will last for years and years - your kid changes all the time and your needs will change too, so its probably better to get something good quality that meets your needs today, will last for the next child, and will have decent resale values on the local mom sites.
I would say start with the stroller. Go to BBB or Babies R Us and test out the strollers in person, have the employee show you how to fold it up, check it against you and your partner's height and stride, and heft it to see how heavy it is. You want to choose the stroller based on what the most common use will be - not on every possible use. Then move on to a carseat that prioritizes what is most important to you (for some its weight/tote-ability, others its ease of install, some want a convertible from the get-go, etc) and if its a bucket, see if there are adapters for your stroller.
Here's us as an example: DH and I went in thinking a Bugaboo or Uppababy Vista would be great, but actually ended up loving the Uppababy Cruz, which we had never even heard of. We are taller, so the telescopic handle on the UP strollers gave us both a tall handle, plus it allowed us to have long strides without kicking the brake. We live in the suburbs, so we wouldn't need super rugged wheels, but the Cruz wheels were solid and had good suspension for asphalt and sidewalks. Plus the Cruz was cheaper than the Vista, lighter, had a bigger, more accessible basket, and the seat was able to face me or face outward.
Once we settled on that as our main stroller, we looked to carseats. For us, we wanted a bucket and assumed all major seats were going to meet the same basic safety regulations. So our main concern was installing it correctly without much fuss. Turned out the UP Mesa carseat clipped right in, was also excellently rated, lasts up to 32", and had an amazingly easy, secure install. We used it until DS outgrew it at 10.5 months because he is very tall, but the "clip in" aspect of it didn't really come in that handy past 3-4 months. My son was never a carseat sleeper/lover and much preferred being able to see out in the stroller, so we switched him over to the full stroller with a Summer Infant Snuzzler to make him cozy and never looked back. My nephew, on the other hand, LOVED sleeping in his carseat and never had any problem with it. So in our case, we could have probably started with a convertible car seat from the beginning, but we never would have known that until DS got here and we didn't want to regret not having a bucket if it turned our son was a carseat sleeper.
We still love our Cruz and use it every day for walks, but once my son got older (around 10 months), we began planning some vacations, making us want something more compact, since there's a lot of OTHER baby gear that travel requires and trunk space is at a premium. So we decided to spring for the Mountain Buggy Nano as our umbrella stroller. Again, we're tall, so the cheap ones didn't work for us because the handles are SO short, and while the Nano doesn't have a telescopic handle, its tall enough and we liked that it could fold up super small for air travel (fits in the overhead!)
We also ended up with two different convertible carseats. The Chicco NextFit for our main seat (again priority was SUPER easy, secure install!) and a Cosco Scenera NEXT for DH's occasional car and travel (its $45 bucks and 10lbs making it ideal for air travel).
For more specialized use things, like a Bob jogging stroller, I'd probably just try to score one used off a mom site after testing one out at the store, unless you know for sure that you will be running regularly. All joggers tend to be SO heavy that it would be sorta hard to take it in a car anywhere.
I know it seems like a lot of gear - and it is - but that's just the journey you go on with a kid. And lots of things can be asked for as a 1st birthday gift or purchased secondhand. We got DS's convertible and Nano as gifts and while we're saving all of our stuff for our next child, we know its all very good quality stuff that we will be able to sell in the future.
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I think the way to happiness is accepting that you will buy more than one car seat and one stroller. There are tons of carseat caddys for sale second hand for almost nothing. They get very little wear so they're usually in great shape. Get one of those. You'll be able to resell for the same price in a few months.
Wait until you see what kind of stroller needs you really have before buying something more. There are a few advantages. You'll buy a stroller that's better for your needs and if you're open to second hand you'll be more connected to other moms. You can find great deals on second hand stuff through Mother's clubs and local mommy Facebook groups.
If you buy used and find out you made the wrong choice you can usually sell for the same price and your mistake cost you nothing.
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Another vote for Lucie's List! I decided on the britax b agile after reading it and doing lots of research. It was between that and the city mini but the city mini doesn't have its own carseat. I would have looked into other models but DH was set in on a three wheeler (don't ask... )
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@leighleigh: we have the Britax B-safe / B-agile travel system and really like them!
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We tried to get away with just a convertible in DH's car from the beginning, but we ended up buying another base for our KeyFit 30 because LO just never looked right in the convertible, despite having an infant insert. It could have been that our seat (the Britax Pavilion) doesn't recline as much as other ones, so LO was too upright for a baby that doesn't know how to hold his head up yet.....
Anyway,if you do get an infant seat, there are many strollers out there that you can buy car seat attachments for. We have the UB Cruz and the attachment was like $30-40.
Also you might want to consider the size/weight of the stroller, depending on where you live (city vs burbs) and how much use you'll actually get out of it...
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