Chicco - KeyFit 35

I did a ton of research and (this is key) only talked to moms who were in my EXACT situation, or a likely future situation. Meaning, I talked to moms with one or two kids who lived in NYC and don't own a car. I certainly heard from, say, moms of three living in Texas (love ya, girl!) but those are \*completely\* different lifestyles and needs. So many baby gear needs are situational. When you're navigating narrow urban retail stores and carrying your stroller up and down subway stairs, you have a completely different set of priorities than someone who needs three carseats across the back row of a minivan. So if it's relevant to you, I went with the Chicco Keyfit35, which the Car Seat Lady ranked as one of the easiest and safest carseats to install seatbelt-only, like you would in a cab or Uber, and bought it with the Chicco Corso LE stroller. Later on we moved to the suburbs and now he's outgrown his infant seat and we have a Graco Extend2Fit carseat and a Babyzen YoYo to keep in the car. If I'd been more sure that we would have a second kid, I probably would have committed to the Uppababy system (we bought and resold a used UB Vista to have the bassinet as a second safe sleeping space when our guy was tiny) but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I was also a hardcore Doona hater when I was pregnant, but gave in and got one after we traveled for the first time and rented a carseat and stroller that were beat to hell and that I did NOT feel safe using--it's not an ideal product, but it made me so much more mobile as a first-time mom and that was overall really important for my mental health.

I love our car seat, it’s chicco key fit 35 and was pretty affordable, and the caddy you can buy separately for it to snap into and become a stroller is around $100. Love them both

I had the keyfit 35 for the infant seat then we now have an extend to fit and the turn to me, I like both but LOVEEE the turn to me . I will be buying another when we have a second kid

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 don't think the Doona is practical. And if you're tall, the height of the stroller is so funky. It's not an option that'll give you a lot of bang for your buck. Chicco Key Fit is great or the Mockingbird. Looks just like the UPPAbaby but a fraction of the cost. PS—check out Poppylist for your baby registry. It's new. We used it for my second and had a great experience.

Ty! yeah actually Chicco key fit is the only one I could find that was specifically tried on a defender and allegedly fit correctly. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit any TSA compliant strollers that I could find (so far). Truly, one doesn’t know the meaning of hell until they shopped for a stroller/car seat 😂 Edit: for future sufferers reading this, I found two “almost” carry on compliant strollers compatible with Keyfit: Summer Infant 3Dpac and Chicco Presto Graphite. Both weight 16lbs and are like within 0.5” of TSA carry on dimensions (so unless the gate agent is being a special dick those should fly, pun intended). Another option seems to be Mountain Buggy Nano