Graco - SnugRide SnugLock 35 LX featuring TrueShield Technology Infant Car Seat (2053220)

We got the Graco SnugRide SnugLock 35 LX infant car seat (in the $200 range) and a Graco click connect stroller. My husband is a composite technician and I’m a SAHM so we don’t have luxurious spending money but want to prioritize safety ratings especially when it comes to a car seat. How do those car seats rate safety wise should be your #1 priority and not aesthetics. We love our car seat especially with blow outs, the inserts come right out for easy cleaning and I don’t have to practically take apart the entire car seat to wash. Also… IMHO, a jogging stroller is the way to go if you’re planning on being active and outside. The regular stroller is nice for grocery stores and stuff but being outdoors, I feel like a jogging stroller holds up way better. You don’t need to break the bank for something baby will only use for a short time frame but also don’t want to cheap out for something meant to potentially save their life.

I bought myself the coach baby bag to have more room to pack things for my 3 year old and newborn. It’s a great bag but also works great for going into work where I want to bring my laptop. It’s something I plan on using even past the diaper era. A pure diaper bag is kind of pointless because you eventually learn to/can leave the house without a ton of things! Any bigger bag would work and you can use ziplocks or smaller bags to organize different things in the bag. Don’t get hung up on getting something labeled “diaper bag”. I personally think the swivel seats are a gimmick… you end up detaching the car seat from the base and bringing it inside so the swivel is pointless in the beginning. Then you have a short period of time where you have to pick up your kid to put them in the car seat. Soon enough your kid is climbing into the car seat themselves. I have the graco snug ride snug lock car seat. I didn’t worry about having a whole stroller system because the baby is only in the newborn carrier for a short period of time. You’re also not supposed to leave baby sleeping in car seat for long periods so I didn’t want to use that as a container for her during walks. When I would run errands/ go to a store I would just put the baby carrier in the shopping cart. I have the uppababy Cruz v2 for our stroller. We purchased the bassinet attachment for while baby is super young. It’s nice cause you can also detach the bassinet if baby falls asleep and bring it inside with you. Now with a newborn and a 3 year old, we bought the piggyback attachment for our 3 year old to hop on and get a ride, she loves it. The piggyback attachment made it so we didn’t need a double stroller. Though if you have kids closer together you may want to consider something that can convert into a double stroller like the vista.

I agree that it’s been hit and miss for us. Specifically: Snap&Go Double Car Seat Stroller Frame - life saver EZ-Lift Pro Infant Car seats…. My mom had a set for the twins and they were fine as a back up pair but I much preferred the buckle on my Graco SnugRide 35 XL. Cool thing is the Graco car seats fitted into the Snap&Go double without issue.

Currently 23 weeks pregnant with baby #3. We’ve used the Graco SnugRide 35 LX infant car seat for both of our previous babies, and plan on using it for #3 as well. We have 2 bases (one in my car, on in my husbands) and just one actual car seat. My oldest was in the infant car seat until they were like 9 months. They seemed to enjoy it, and didn’t exceed the height/weight limits until then. My second was in it for about 3 months. They absolutely despised being in the car seat, so we went ahead and switched them over to a convertible car seat. In my car, both of their car seats are the Graco 4Ever DLX 4-in-1 convertible car seats. In my husbands vehicle, he has one of the 4Ever DLX and on Graco Extend2Fit convertible car seat. We like both options, but I definitely prefer the 4Ever. When I just had one kiddo, we used the Graco Modes stroller. And now that we have two kiddos, we use the Graco Ready2Grow LX 2.0 double stroller. I’ve liked both so far. Both were compatible with our infant car seat. And the double stroller even has a small seat on the bottom by the storage space where you can buckle in an older toddler if needed. Both fold easily, but the double stroller does take up a good amount of trunk space. I have a 3rd row SUV with the 3rd row laid down, and it takes up like half of the space if it is laying flat.

We have the Graco click connect. We got an infant car seat and two bases from my husband’s coworker. I bought the stroller frame that connects to the car seat. We’ve been using this since birth and have discussed other options. Our 11 week old son is probably 15Lbs by now. That plus the weight of the car seat is making it very heavy to move from house to car and car to shopping cart or wherever. Our pediatrician mentioned that at some point we are going to simply prefer to carry him because all of that is too heavy. So husband and I have decided that we will eventually get two all-in-one car seats, one for each of our cars, and just buckle him into the seat in the car. Like we won’t take the seat out of the car with him anymore.

So, in a Hyundai Kona you're going to need a very compact seat. We have a Mazda CX-30 which is a similar sort of situation and only had a few options. Even then, the front passenger seat is not useable if you're over 5'5". We have a Graco Snugride bucket seat. I believe the Graco Extend 2 Fit is the most compact front-to-back so I'd probably recommend that for a convertible. I have never put a newborn in one though.  One thing to consider with a December baby and no bucket seat is that it's a lot more unpleasant to get them buckled up and such from outside the car vs. doing it inside and then just clicking the car seat into the base. Unless you have a midwife or your GP is walking distance, you'll be trekking your newborn to the doctor at least 3-4 times in the first 8 weeks in the absolute dead of winter, and that doesn't account for any other driving you might have to do. 

That’s nowhere near Bart either. Buy a $120 Graco snug ride and take an uber or a cab.

Yeah, we paired a Graco with a Mockingbird, and we have no issues.

Keep in mind you really might not use the infant seat for very long. My baby boy was 16 lbs at 4 months and it just got too heavy to carry inside. I ended up switching him to a convertible because he’s much more comfy in it and it’s easier to put him in/take him out. I personally hold not splurge on an infant car seat, my graco was absolutely perfect

Have an infant car seat (graco) and an evenflo giant car seat that I call the captains chair in my cx5. It’s tight but both my husband and I are under 6 feet tall so it works for us. You can’t recline well and you can’t put the front seats back too far. We had the car before the babies though so we make it work.

Stroller I have the Mockingbird Single to Double. It’s a single stroller that can be changed to a double stroller with an attachment. It also has a car seat adapter for tons of infant car seats. We’ve had ours for 4 years and we love it. It’s super durable, folds up easy, and is easy to pop out and open. It also has TONS of storage. For a car seat we did the Graco infant seat and when they grow out of that we change to a convertible seat that adjusts to fit all of their needs until they don’t need a car seat/booster anymore.

In my opinion, it’s absolutely not necessary. I had a graco infant seat and I borrowed the clock connect stroller piece that my sister wasn’t using anymore, but my baby outgrew that car seat by 5 months old. She has the evenflo revolve 360 extend car seat now, which I love because rotating the seat makes it super easy to get her in and out (especially when she’s asleep) and it’s safe for use all the way from newborn to booster seat with rear facing up to 50lbs. As far as strollers, once we were done with the Graco car seat I bought an umbrella stroller from Walmart for $30. That ended up getting moldy while were were living in a camper for a few months so I tossed it and I’ve realized I actually don’t really NEED a stroller anymore. She’s a year and a half old, almost, and I usually either carry her or hold her hand while she walks.

We're due in a couple weeks there's snow on the ground - so we got an infant car seat for about $200 CAD (Graco) when it was on sale. Just check if there's adapters for the stroller if you drive everywhere and don't plan on grocery delivery. Infant car seats still have a 2hr window for baby