Baby Gear: Travel

...continuing my reviews of baby products. One thing I would like to mention, a book that was tremendously helpful and recommended from several friends is Baby Bargains buy Denise Fields. We just checked it out from the library but it has extensive reviews on all things baby and for the most part we trusted the recommendations (the major exception being their high rating of IKEA furniture, but that is another story)

Stroller (full size) - I did a lot of stroller research, the biggest issues with full size strollers are weight, ease of fold, and for a lot of people basket size and cup holders. There are a lot of opinions out there about the pros and cons of travel systems and we decided we liked the idea. (a travel system is a stroller and car seat that work together). Overall Chicco had some of the best ratings, it was towards the upper side of the price level, but there are strollers over $1000 (yes really) so no where near the upper limit! The stroller is easy to fold and it stands on its own when folded which is important in Michigan, you don't want to have to fold your stroller down onto the dirty slushy parking lot in February. Honestly the biggest thing that swung our vote to Chicco from Graco or similar lower priced brands was the color selection - we really wanted something neutral because we were not going to find out the sex of the baby and we really wanted to be able to use it for future babies no matter if they are boys or girls. We ended up with the Chicco Cortina stroller and in the Discovery pattern. We really love it so far, no problems other than it is a large stroller and it does take up a lot of space in the car, but so far it has been fine. We will be travelling with it on a plane in about a month and I'll update then with any further feedback.

Stroller (lightweight) - We initially registered for the Combi Cosmo because we had 2 people at Babies R Us recommend it to us, however after we got it at the shower I freaked out a little because I really hadn't done any research into it and I knew that we could wait a little bit to get one so we returned it and used that money to get the full size stroller.

Fast forward to January 2010 and while planning our second air travel trip I decided it was time to settle the lightweight stroller issue and I dove back into research. We ended up looking at the Combi again but it just didn't feel right to me, the handles fold inward and that made it seem very unstable. We looked at Maclarens (kind of the Cadillac of strollers) and liked them but not sure we were ready for the $250 price tag. In the end the fine folks at Buy Buy Baby helped us choose the Inglesina Swift. We have not used it enough to provide good feedback yet so I will update, but the highlights for us are the large basket, the 4 position recline, and the quality construction for the price. I don't think we will end up taking this stroller on the plane with us afterall because we need to bring a car seat as well but I will update this review after we have put some miles on the Inglesina.

Car Seat (Infant Seat) - The Chicco KeyFit infant seat is part of the travel system that we decided on with the stroller above. Actually it was the car seat that got the best reviews and put Chicco high on our list. It is consistently one of the best safety rated seats on the market. We also love that the seat snaps in and out of bases that stay in the car and in and out of the stroller making it more of a buggy for when baby is little. We have the standard KeyFit (that goes up to 22 lbs), there is a KeyFit30 that will go up to 30 lbs. and I really considered changing to that one but a) it was not available in the Discovery trim and b) by the time a baby is 30 lbs it will most likely be way too long for this type of infant seat. We plan on this seat lasting Anna until she is about 1 year old and honestly I am not sure we could handle lugging her around in it for much longer than that. Our major "con" of this seat is that it is quite heavy, then you add in the baby and it is a lot to heft in and out of cars. It has been OK for Jeremy but now that Anna is around 18 lbs herself carrying her in the seat is really difficult. I am to the point now that I need to either put the seat into the stroller to push or take her out of the seat and just hold her on her own.

We do have 2 bases, 1 comes with the system and we got a second for a shower gift. That is really the way to go for us because we both have Anna in our car equally. Not sure what we are going to do when we move to the bigger seat, we might just have to buy another one because transferring from car to car might be too hard. The bases use the Latch System which makes it really easy to install in the car and to move it to another car if need be.

Car Seat (Convertible) - Looking to the future we also registered for a fullsize car seat that we can use when Anna outgrows the Infant Seat (hopefully at about 1 year). In doing research it was clear that Britax is one of the safety leaders in this category and the price tag reflects that, but if there was ever something to splurge on it is the safety of our child. We ended up with a middle of the road convertible seat. Convertible meaning it can be used both rear facing and forward facing. Children can technically be placed in forward facing seats around 20 lbs or 1 year old, however the AAP recently came out with a recommendation that babies stay rear facing until they are 2 years old. The Britax Marathon will stay rear facing to 33 lbs and after that will last forward facing until 65 lbs which should be well beyond the point when she will move to a booster seat anyway so it might be a little bit of overkill actually.

We have only used this a few times so far in Grandma & Grandpa's car, but it is extremely well made with high quality materials and Anna is very comfortable in it. I have already noticed several small details that will make things easier when we go to this seat full time in about 5 months!

Pack & Play - Didn't do as much here, just read some reviews to avoid the quality concerns (and there are quite a few with cheaper models) and ended up just picking the Chicco Lullaby Playard because it got good reviews and it was made to match the travel system. So far we really like it, it did take some getting used to how to put it up and take it down and we still will occasionally have issues, but mostly our fault. We have never once used the changing table attachment and I think that is a waste if given a choice. We really like the way it folds up into a bag for travel and is pretty easy to transport. So far we have used it in Florida (taken down via car) at the Grandparents houses and in a hotel room all with great success. One concern is that you can not attach the mobile if you have a sheet on the mattress - Anna hasn't spent enough time in it to ever care about the mobile so it has not mattered to us. We are now going to be able to stop using the bassinet attachment (which took the bulk of the time in installing) so it should be even easier.