Graco - Modes Pramette Travel System

I learned a lot from my firstborn (now 11 years old) and utilized a lot of similar items for my second baby (now 2 months old). Didn’t use a crib for my first, just a pack n play that had a bassinet which worked great until she was about 2, then transitioned straight into a twin bed; didn’t bother with a toddler bed. I was living in a tiny apartment for the first year of my firstborn’s life, but am now in a two story house, so we have a [pack n play](https://a.co/d/5xxr3uA) in our room, a bassinet downstairs, and a second hand crib in my office for the days when I work from home (once I go back to work). I also love our [car seat/stroller combo](https://a.co/d/5Xwx8n2) that grows with the baby. The car seat fits into a collapsible stroller base, or it can be switched to a pram that can be converted into a regular stroller as the baby grows, and the car seat fits into any Graco car seat base, so purchasing an extra for our second car was easy. Good luck!

We have the pramette system, still going strong 15 months, 2 states, and 4 flights later!

I've seen a lot of comments about how it's a personal choice, but it's worth noting that baby wearing versus stroller isn't really YOUR choice. Some babies just don't tolerate one or the other. My LO LOVED being in the stroller (travel system, so atill in the infant seat but looking around), tolerates her carseat as its rear-facing, and was sort of meh about being worn. Her cousin MUST be worn or carried at all times or it gets messy. You won't know your baby's temperament until they're here, so I'd hesitate to buy a whole lot of expensive stuff now unless you're getting help (a la a baby shower). Strollers and carriers are often good second hand if desired/available, but carseats must be bought new for safety reasons! Also, for your consideration, my 16mo STILL hasn't outgrown the infant seat from the travel system we bought (Graco Modes). I bought a convertible carseat when she was a newborn, my postpartum brain thinking she'd need it before too long. She'll probably need it by 18mo, but there's no rush unless you have a high %tile baby!

We had the Graco Modes infant seat but my baby hated it. We switched to the Turn2Me at 3 months old and it was the best decision ever. She is 17 months now and still has plenty of room in the seat. I personally love the turning feature because it’s hard to “fold” her in a non turning one (we have a travel seat that I loathe).

I have Nuna and I think would go with UppaBaby if I could do it over. I have the Nuna Swiv. (Note: We also got a Graco Modes while traveling (can’t remember the specific model but it has the “slide2me” feature). I compare the two a bit. We also have the bugaboo travel stroller which I haven’t used, but is very similar to the Nuna Swiv with the big-kid stroller attachment, just with smaller net underneath.) **CONS:** 1. It feels super low to the ground so baby feels really far away from me now that I’ve tried other strollers. Didn’t think about this or notice it at all while shopping, but now I constantly feel like baby is so low to the ground! Will probably be less of an issue as he gets bigger. 2. Storage underneath is basically unusable with the bassinet attached to the stroller. You have to put diaper bag in before you attach the bassinet, and reach in to grab things from the diaper bag. Very tricky to yank a bag out from underneath because there’s so little room. 3. There’s no good option for the period between a bassinet and a big-kid stroller (which is like between 3-7 months at least. My baby started wanting to be able to see the world a tiny bit and not be totally flat on his back. We got a cheaper Graco pramette while traveling and it was fantastic. It allowed me to have his head very slightly elevated so he wasn’t completely staring into space. I could adjust flat again if he fell asleep. Now at 6 months he can sit pretty reclined in a space that feels a little more enclosed than the Nuna main stroller, and I can tilt him back flat if he falls asleep in the stroller and turn it back into a pramette. I actually really love the Graco we got (you can adjust height of the pramette seat, I can’t remember the exact model name but it was a Graco Modes model. It IS super bulky but I think some UppaBaby is bulky too.). 4. There are different attachments for the car seat and bassinet vs. the stroller seat, so if you want to use the seat and switch between the car seat, you have to remember the special adaptors for the car seat. We have the Nuna Pipa RX car seat, so I feel like they should all have the same adaptors!? And you can’t switch the direction of the or car seat unless you switch around the adaptors, which is annoying. The handle gets in the way if you’re sitting down, so sometimes I wanted to be able to face the bassinet outwards and wheel it right up to me, but it was a hassle to do while at a restaurant or something. 5. I’ve now read about how horrible their customer service is and wouldn’t choose them again based off that alone. Saw some video about how a guy found a defect that made his kids $800 car seat unusable. He contacted Nuna and they wouldn’t send a replacement until they received back the broken seat. He asked what he was supposed to do for 2+ weeks without a car seat, and offered to pay a deposit for the replacement and they still wouldn’t send it before receiving the defective one. I guess standard practice by UppaBaby, Graco, etc. is to immediately send out a replacement and you can send back the defective or recalled car seat in that box once you receive a replacement, so a kid doesn’t go without a car seat. 6. Can’t believe I almost forgot this, but it is NOT easy to remove the car seat from the stroller to get it in/out of the car! You have to press buttons on either side of the car seat simultaneously while lifting up, which you’re often doing while physically in between two parked cars in parking lots with the stroller in front of you and the car door behind. Very limited space to move. You can’t grab the handle while holding the car seat by the sides, so you have to wrangle it into the car while holding by the side nubbins instead of the handle and it’s extremely awkward and uncomfortable. I don’t know why they designed it like this. Makes it really difficult. Don’t know if this is standard on strollers for safety reasons or what?! 7. Edit to add: You can ONLY use Nuna infant seats with Nuna strollers! And it is really only designed for Pipa RX. Aside from this feeling sleazy for a company to do, if means no flexibility. If we have a second baby and another infant seat is rated highest for safety, we couldn’t use that infant seat with our Nuna, we would still HAVE to buy another Nuna infant seat. We also have the Graco seat at my parents house, but we couldn’t bring the Nuna stroller because it’s not compatible with the Graco. UppaBaby is compatible with multiple car seats brands. **PROS:** 1. LOVE the swiv feature. Super easy to maneuver, even up/down curbs, in small shops with little space. Turns on a dime. Very smooth ride. 2. Stroller frame is super lightweight and relatively compact. MUCH smaller than the graco. Collapse is super easy (Graco is not nearly as easy to fold/unfold. Bugaboo seems most difficult to fold/unfold, but it’s obviously super compact so it’s a trade off). 3. Bassinet is a safe-sleep space, which was really nice. 4. Feels high-quality. Idk I feel like I’m grasping at straws at this point! Can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. If I had to do it again I am not sure I’d pick Nuna, although I originally picked it because all the UppaBaby strollers felt so big and heavy! I wanted to be able to get it in and out of the car easily by myself, and I definitely can! I also got a Nuna stroller because the Nuna Pipa car seat is also the highest safety rated. I also have the Graco car seat that comes in second for safety (at grandmas house), and the Pipa feels much higher quality and comfier than the Graco. If I could do it over I would probably get convertible car seats instead of an infant seat. They can only stay in the car seat for 30m at a time for the first 3ish months, and then it goes up to 1h, then to 2h at like 6 months or something. I have a big baby so he’s outgrowing it fast and has quickly gotten too heavy to carry around by the handle anyway. Although it does come in handy while running errands because I can let him stay asleep if I’m doing a short burst of multiple quick errands. But that’s such a specific situation! So much info but hope it’s helpful!

Graco all the way. Just under 400 and came with car seat and bassinet which can fold into toddler seat. Easily remove and place bassinet or car seat onto the stroller and quick and easy collapsible system

I went with the graco modes and graco snugride. They are affordable! We used the bassinet only for walks in neighborhood until recently. She’s now 5 months and not quite ready to sit up in toddler upright stroller position, but likes to ‘see’ so we are using the car seat more for stroller walks. I think the guidance for maximum time in a car seat gets a bit longer after ~3 months (shifting from 30min to 2hrs). We honestly carried the car seat into most stores because she was awake and it wasn’t that heavy- but now that she’s heavier we have started clicking it into the stroller. I actually did my first sit down in a coffee shop and enjoy an ice cream while she sleeps in the car seat-stroller (transferred and didn’t wake up) ever two weekends ago- it was bliss!!

We have the 35 lite car seat and love it! Very easy to install and pretty lightweight which is nice both when you’re recovering and when baby grows. Can’t speak on the stroller but we’re really happy with the seat

Hi- mom to a 10 month old. We’ve loved our Graco system. The 3-4 way travel set is the way to go. Car seat, car seat base, bassinet, and stroller all comes in one box, $399. He’s finally outgrowing his car seat now but he’s also 99th percentile in height. And we just purchased the Graco toddler car seat, love it already!

We purchased the graco snugride travel system, comes with the infant car seat that attaches to the stroller and the infant pram that converts into a toddler stroller. We got a good deal on rebelstork so spent only about half price of what you’d see at say target. I initially was going to go with a convertible car seat option as well but after lots of research I learned that if your newborn is on the smaller side they just simply aren’t as safe, our girl is measuring smaller so that was important to us. She’s not here yet, only a few more days hopefully. But so far we’ve been very happy with the easy set up and install of the system.