We’re now less than 3 weeks away from our due date! Heather and I are quite excited!
We recently made our last big purchases before the baby arrives! We got a car seat, matching stroller and an audio/video baby monitor.
Car Seat – Chicco KeyFit 30
We decided on the Chicco KeyFit 30 car seat after narrowing our decision down to the following models:
- Graco – SnugRide 32
- Graco – SnugRide
- Graco – SafeSeat
- Baby Trend – Flex Loc
- Evenflo – Discovery
There are some other brands that we did not consider. We basically narrowed down our search by looking at the top 10 infant car seats then filtered out models we didn’t like. Unfortunately we never researched the Maxi-Cosi brand nor considered the Cosco models. I believe Cosco does not sell infant-only seats.
For safety concerns, we focused on getting an infant-only seat. If you do a lot of research, you’ll read recommendations for having the infant-only seat that faces the rear. They recommend that your infant is rear facing for long as possible , at least the first year. The Chicco 30 we purchased gives us plenty of time to make the transition to a forward facing seat since the weight limit is 30 pounds. Other research will recommend that you never accept or purchase a used car seat. This makes sense to me, even if the car seat was never involved in an accident, the safety requirements and design improvements over the past few years should be reason enough to encourage any conscious parent-to-be to purchase a brand new infant car seat.
If you’re doing your own research on infant car seats, a good place to start is www.car-safety.org. They have links to just about all the sites you will want to read about infant car seats.
When we finally narrowed down our pick between the Graco SnugRide 32 and the Chicco KeyFit 30, it came down to weight and how easy it was to click in/out of the base.
Stroller – Chicco Cortina
The stroller purchase came after the car seat. The Chicco Cortina Stroller is well designed, easy to collapse and open, but is bulky. It will take up most of our trunk when we transport it. It is designed for the car seat though and it clicks in securely.
Infant Monitor – Summer Infant Day & Night Video Monitor
A video based baby monitor came highly recommended from Heather’s aunts. We decided on the Summer Infant Day & Night Video Monitor. Don’t let the video feature fool you, this does audio as well as video. The monitor is setup to mainly be used for audio only but with a click of a button you can turn on the video to see what’s happening. Well lit rooms will display in color, while dark rooms at night display in black and white. It uses the 900Mhz frequency, so your Wi-fi network will not receive interference from the monitor. The camera/microphone will need to be plugged into the wall outlet. The hand held receiver is cordless and rechargeable. The hand held receiver also includes an A/V jack and cable so you can plug it into your TV. The inclusion of the cable is not documented on any of the on-line stores we looked at. Amazon.com was the lowest price we could find for this model.
Thank You!
We’re very fortunate that our families and friends have been so helpful and giving. Just about all of the smaller items we needed we’ve received at baby showers and visits. Heather and I greatly appreciate all the clothes, accessories and toys everyone has given us. Your help has allowed us to put our money into the more expensive items like above and we greatly appreciate that!
