UPPAbaby - Aria V2

I think it’s easiest to start with making a list of your priorities! Convertible car seats (like the rotating ones, as well those that can be used rear facing or forward facing) usually can be used from birth to booster, but it’s important to know if that’s what you want. I personally like the convenience of having an infant seat/carrier that I can remove from its base in the car, because baby falls asleep in the car a LOT and I like to bring him inside without waking him. If you do go the route of an infant seat first, I’d recommend one that is compatible with a travel system because it makes like so much easier. I personally have an UppaBaby car seat/stroller combo and love it, but have heard great things about nearly all of the others too. I think having a bassinet attachment for a stroller is great when baby is small, because it allows them to stretch out and wiggle while you stroll, which is great for them developmentally. It’s not recommended that babies spend extended periods of time in the infant carseat, so I don’t recommend using them for walks if you can avoid it, and the bigger stroller seats aren’t recommended for babies until they have better head and neck control, which also makes the bassinet a winner. If you prefer to skip the infant seat and go to a convertible seat from the jump, that’s fine too! I personally have a rotating car seat for my toddler and plan to use the same one for my infant when he outgrows his infant seat. It makes for less strain on you when buckling the baby in, and is my favorite car seat I’ve ever used. If you go this route, you also don’t have to worry about a stroller that is compatible with an infant seat, which can be a plus if you are looking at some brands that don’t make car seats! I’d write down your must-haves. Decide if you want an infant seat or a convertible seat, and maybe watch some installation videos on YouTube to see if you’re willing to install the seat before you buy it (some are way easier to install than others). From there, decide if your budget is compatible with all or if you need to weed out the ones you don’t want to pay for. And just take it one step at a time! It’s overwhelming but you can’t go wrong, truly. It’s mainly a personal preference situation!

My wife and I make good money, and are definitely doing well. That being said, she sometimes falls under the spell of "higher price = higher quality" and needs to get brought down to earth. We bought an expensive Uppababy car seat and it was horrible for our baby. Seriously she had panic attacks at the thought of using it.  Don't be too overwhelmed by the high cost brand recommendations. Some are great, but sometimes hype is just hype. 

We hated the aria and got the pipa aire rx instead. There is an adapter for the stroller, we also have the Cruz and have loved it.

So I worked at BuyBuyBaby for 3 years and learned a lot of the different brands and their pros and cons. When we did have my LO I knew I wanted the car seat and stroller to be the most expensive of the items I was going to purchase of everything (and I had already left the store before they closed permanently) because I planned to use them the most. My co worker in the stroller/car seat department gave me all the info on what you should look for in a stroller (foam tires being a big one so it get a tear you can still push it vs ones that have air) and car seat (what safety measures and brands known for good ratings) I also knew that I wanted a car seat that could attach to the stroller without having to deal with adaptors etc so I could just put them in and go from the car. Settled on the uppa baby mesa infant and the uppa baby vista set (so came with the bassinet and toddler seat as part of the package). Was very pricy but three years later I'm still using the toddler seat now and the stroller while I've passed the other items along to friends having babies so I got my monies worth I feel.

Are you sure it was the Aria? Were you possibly lifting it with the base attached? The Aria is one of the lightest car seats on the market. It’s under 6 lbs. My Chicco Keyfit30 is 9.5 lbs for comparison.

I have the UB Aria and love it. It’s so light. I also love the sunshade in it. My baby is 4 months and currently 80th percentile in weight (almost 16lbs) and 95th in height (25 in), and was 9lbs at birth. I think we have probably 2 more months we can use it! And honestly, I can’t imagine using it longer than that outside of a car setting. She prefers either being held or the rumble seat to the car seat anyway. We also have a Doona that was gifted to use. It is useful in certain situations, but is SO heavy. I almost can’t use it without my husband to lift it into the car. We have the Cruz 2 stroller and love it as well. The connection points are really easy to use. We are looking at the Minu for something slimmer as she gets older.

I’d look up complaints about customer service, specifically about recalls or having to replace anything with their products. We were debating between Nuna and Uppababy, and ended up going Uppababy because of the reassurance.

The uppababy car seats notoriously are hard to install at the correct angle. The CPST we saw said she hates installing/ checking them. We have a Clek liing, is it better than other cheaper car seats? Probably not. We liked the fact it was a Canadian company and had the load leg so that’s why we went with it. Nurtured in Halifax is where we ordered our car seat and stroller (Uppababy Vista V3) from. Definitely worth a trip to the store to test things out. It’s about a 4.5 hour drive for me but it was worth it.

Hey, congratulations on impending dad status. My daughter is a little over one and I've had no issues fitting her, my wife and a stroller in the back (but not much else) We started with an uppa baby aria (smaller and lighter) and recently I got a Evenflo Revolve 360 slim to move behind the passenger seat since she's grown out of the last one. My wife is 5'5 or so and with the car seat behind her it is a little tight, so we don't like to take long trips in the WRX.  So just being honest here about expectations, it's not going to be a everything vehicle. You won't be packing everyone in for a trip to Costco anytime soon with a stroller and diaper bag and everything else, we take the wife's SUV for that and long road trips, but that can be somewhat fixed if you get a roof rack with storage to expand capacity.

Very few car seats need a base. We took our uppababy car seat in and out Ubers with ease throughout the first year - takes literally a few seconds to put the seatbelt through, and then you can throw your stroller in the trunk and attach the car seat to it on the other side