Chicco - KeyFit 22

You’re going to get a range of opinions here, and that even mirrors the professional reviews online - for some reason even the big review outlets seem to be very mixed on them. Personally, we absolutely love ours and that was even more confirmed when we bought a non-rotating car seat for my wife’s car (spoiler: she hates it and wishes we bought another rotating model). We bought the baby jogger city turn (https://www.babyjogger.com/car-seats/toddler-car-seats/city-turn/city-turn-rotating-convertible-car-seat/SP_1397014.html?srsltid=AfmBOorSfSdSwFnSJkl1rlWYK6FQ1i3S2JTJUSupZclVLxRdjrXBJ_uG) because we also have a baby jogger stroller and liked the build/construction of it. It’s definitely spendy but the convenience has paid for itself many times over. My kid also has never complained about it being uncomfortable or similar, even on long road trips. I read wire cutter on The NY Times website a lot for product reviews and was shocked that they wouldn’t recommend any rotating models as part of their toddler car seat recommendations. IMO I think people get clouded by the extra cost of the rotating feature and think it lessens the quality of the seat overall, but our City Turn is built as solid as any other car seat I checked out in stores. My wife wanted to save a few bucks on the second seat so we bought a cheap non rotating Chicco model and that thing sucks. After going through the buying process of both infant and toddler car seats, while there are some small exceptions here and there, I’m pretty convinced that in general you get what you pay for. If you want a rotating model, spend the extra bucks and get a quality one and you’ll be happy.

I had an infant car seat then switched to rotating convertible at 4m and wish I went with convertible from the start. We never used the infant car seat as a method of transportation if you want to call it that, it always stayed in the car and we just took baby out into stroller or carried her home or baby wore. Our main stroller is the UB vista and our infant car seat was the Chicco key fit and our convertible was evenflo 360.

Chico key fit is one of the top rated car seats on consumer reports. (#2 I believe) and affordable. I got the jogging stroller that is compatible and we love it. It’s very maneuverable and the large Wheels are great for sidewalks. It’s much smoother than other strollers we have with smaller wheels.

I didn't take mine to Japan, but I found the Chicco Bravo set was the best for travel when they are that little. The carseat clicks into the stroller. It doesn't really help with your storage issue, but it is airplane compliant. I would ask the hotel if they could help with storing it as you go. I never used it, but there is an app called "ecbo cloak" that looked like it showed storage options around Japan. That may give you some other ideas around where you're staying and that might be able to accommodate your 30 day time frame.

I would skip the travel system. Buy a car seat and a stroller that you like. A lot of brands have adaptors to fit whatever car seat you want (I think Chicco is the exception here - they don’t have adaptors for their strollers). We got a Chicco bravo/keyfit travel system with my oldest. He HATED that seat and we switched him to a convertible seat by 5 months. We reused it for my second and she ALSO hated it. I got a nicer Graco seat for her and it changed everything. We also weren’t huge fans of the Chicco stroller but it folded easily and was one of the few at the time that had an adjustable handle height. We ditched that stroller for a nicer one (mockingbird) with #2 (I suggest starting with a single to double stroller if you want to have more kids in the future) and the nicer stroller had a universal car seat adaptor, but we only took her in the stroller in the car seat a few times. I primarily babywore whenever we went shopping and the stroller is just for walks. You can skip the bucket seat all together if you want and go straight to a rotating seat (we have the Chicco fit360 and love it), the bucket seat is just convenient for taking into the doctors office or wherever when they’re super fresh or getting them buckled in inside in the winter/summer.

Eh my kids never slept through taking the bucket seat out of the car so that wasn’t really a concern of mine when swapping to a convertible seat. The bucket seats are just convenient because in those super early days you want to be able to set baby down somewhere (outside of the house) easily to fill out forms or do shopping but you don’t want to set your newborn on the ground in the doctor’s office, so having the bucket seat is really nice. My kids just hated the *chicco* bucket, my daughter loved her Graco one. The chicco one always had her chin on her chest even when the bubble level said it was in properly and I think she just couldn’t breathe well. It may have been that way for my oldest too but we were inexperienced and didn’t know better. For the stroller, I just suggest building your own travel system instead of buying one already paired up. Travel sets force you into buying a car seat you don’t like because you want the stroller or a stroller that’s mid because you like the car seat. But so many brands of strollers have adaptors to work with other brands of car seats so you don’t have to compromise on either. I only mentioned Chicco because they’re the only brand I know of that doesn’t have adaptors for other brands (Graco is usually their main competition but I think even Graco has adaptors for some brands)

Not all carseats fit your car. We have smaller vehicles so we needed a compact bucketseat that was compatible. Most strollers will have adapters so you dont have to stick with the same brand across the board. We have a Chicco keyfit infant bucket seat and a Uppababy stroller. We liked the UB strollers and got the bassinet that you can swap the seat with when they're small. Most strollers require babies to have some kind of head control before you can use them in a more upright position but the UB reclined back and paired with their infant insert made it usable from day 1 if we wanted. But as we do a ton of walking, we have the bassinet that clicks in and is also safe sleep rated. So she sleeps there at night as well at our bedside. Eventually I will probably get a smaller travel stroller to keep in my car but our OB Cruz2 is perfect for our neighbourhood and the long walks we do from home. It mostly fits into my trunk so I can take it places but it does take up room.

My baby ended up sleeping in the bassinet part of her playpen until 6 months. It’s bigger than most bassinets and I think she liked the black mesh walls. I bought a real bassinet for her but she hated it and we got the best sleep in the playpen so just stuck with that. We got the silver cross playpen and I love it. For car seat you’re going to want one that’s compatible with your car and the stroller you want. So I’d start there. I got the Chico key for 30 because I have a small car and the car seat has a high safety rating. And then I got the attachment that made it work for my stroller.

This was >6 years ago, so take it for what it is. We had the Pipa Lite, our cousin had the KeyFit. When we flew to go visit, we borrowed it bc by this time her cousin was in a convertible. The KeyFit was HEAVY compared to the Pipa. Made us miss our Pipa sooo much

We went for the bench 2nd row and it’s working well for us. Our 9 mo old is in a KeyFit behind the driver. Our 2 yr old is in a Graco SlimFit in the middle position. For daily school drop-off/pick-up our 10 yr old sits on the bench. For longer car rides, she prefers the 3rd row and it’s better for everyone to keep her and her brother from pestering each other. Since most of our driving is electric around town, we’re still averaging above 60 mpg with the T8 after 5k miles. We’re very happy with the car overall and hope to get at least 8 years out of it. It’s a nice step up from our Outback which we also loved and was great when we only had 1 kid.

Yes - this is the answer. Thank you. We didn't know we could install the car seat without the base. We have a Chicco Keyfir with the Uppababy stroller and this is a perfect solution

This is the answer. Thank you. I had no idea I could use our car seat without the base.