We had the Graco in my 2016 for both kids and it did great. I had the police department locally help me install my first one to make sure I was doing it right.
We did the graco snugride snugfit with my first and it was nice! I just hated lugging it around haha- not the seat’s fault, I’m just short and my baby got too heavy for me to carry it comfortably pretty quickly. She also had reflux so we switched to a chicco fit 360 at 6-7ish months. I’m due with our second in a month and we just went straight for the convertible this time. We still have the infant seat/stroller if we need it, but I figure with two we’d be using a double stroller most of the time anyways.
We used a bucket car seat up to a year for our almost 9lb at birth baby. He grew fast, and he still safely used it for a year. It was sooooo helpful for when he fell asleep in the car and we wanted to stretch the nap a little longer. I know people say don’t let baby sleep in the car seat - but sometimes continuing the nap was really worth it for us.
We always kept our eyes on him if he was still asleep and stayed nearby. Also if baby doesn’t transfer well out of the car seat, keeping them in the infant seat makes it a little easier.
For rotating infant car seats, [it looks like your options are pretty limited](https://www.safeintheseat.com/full-list?stage=infant&features=swivels-rotates&brands=baby-jogger-37a21%7Cbritax%7Cchicco-54ee9%7Cclek-04f42%7Ccybex-02d79%7Cgraco-b2e31%7Cmaxi-cosi%7Cnuna%7Cuppababy). Additionally, Mockingbird doesn't list any of these models as compatible with their adapter. That doesn't mean they aren't, just that you might be taking a gamble.
I really liked the Graco Snugride Snugfit, but my car has a latch system so I don't know if it meets your requirements. Of note, I do *not* like how it works with the Mockingbird [car seat adapter](https://hellomockingbird.com/products/stroller-car-seat-adapter?model=Graco+Premier+SnugRide+SnugFit+35+XT&variant=16179396542553). It's imprecise and I often jostled the car seat while attaching/removing from the stroller. I believe this is caused by the adapter and not the seat, and that style of adapter is used for multiple brands (Graco, Britax, BabyJogger, and Chicco).
You might want to start with that link to the SITS car seat database and compile a list of everything that meets your hard requirements (LATCH, mockingbird, base) and then update/re-post with your short list and ask for experiences with those particular items. You'll get much better feedback that way.
Edit: stupid link formatting
Top Travel Car Seats on Reddit
1
Cosco Kids
Scenera Next DLX Convertible Car Seat
78% positive of 238 users
Super light, cheap, great for air travel, but outgrown fast.
subtlelikeatank
