On Carseats

*pre-post disclaimer* I don't care what kind of carseat you have. All carseats are tested to be safe as long as they are being used properly. I tend to follow the higher "best practices" guidelines (referenced here along with other places I have seen them), which I will highlight, but this doesn't mean that you are being an unsafe parent if you don't use the same level of guidelines that I do. I put this information out there because it sure would have been nice to know when we were looking at carseats (infant and then convertible).

Carseats pretty much equal an overwhelming mass of information and choices and price factors as is the case with most baby gear. Not only do you have cute patterns to contend with, you also have various features that you never know will be practical or not until you actually have a kid and strap them into one and, in the case of an infant seat, carry one around with you in and out of the car day after day.

If you are looking at carseats, I would highly recommend looking at this chart for infant seats which fully breaks down all the information and stats of each kind of carseat. SO helpful! 

Let's start with infant carseats. Months before we ever had Alex, I bought a BabyTrend FlexLoc (22 lb weight limit, 28.5" height limit) in Galaxy. I liked the colors of it and that it would work for a boy or girl (see, I was totally being practical!). We read reviews and people said they liked the triangle shaped handle, so we went and looked at some at Babies R Us and decided it was a pretty good option for the price. We opted to go with a stand alone carseat instead of a travel system. The thought of pushing a big old stroller like that around was too much for me to bear. We opted for a "souped up" umbrella stoller with a full recline and still LOVE it to this day. 13 lbs, super easy to fold/unfold, and takes up almost no room when folded.
But back to the carseat.
Our favorite features are the push in/push button release (alligator) latch clips, the turn a dial harness height adjuster, the canopy, and the harness thightness adjuster.
Our less than ideal features are the crotch buckle, the triangle handle, the weight, and the low-ish height/weight limit.

*Latch Clips* I cannot tell you how important it is to have great latch clips. Our convertible that Kaitlyn is in now has very simple latch clips that are THE biggest pain in the butt to undo and pretty hard to put in as well.
Here is a picture of the LATCH clips on the BabyTrend:

and a more "standard" type clip would be similar to this:

Having great latch clips makes moving your carseat base really easy to move into another car so that you don't have to use the seatbelt to buckle the carseat into another car (and thus have to unbuckle and then rethread/buckle/pull to lock and get a GOOD tight fit every time you got out of/into the car). It doesn't sound like a big deal, but do it a few times and it is. This was really nice when I was doing stuff with my mom and it was easier for her to drive. It was also great when we were looking at houses with our realtor (my MIL) and were constantly taking out and putting the carseat back into the car.

*Turn knob harness height adjustment*
In the first 2 years of life your baby is growing REALLY fast. For most carseats, this means that you have to undo the harness in the back, pull out the straps and then re-thread them into the next highest slot. In the BabyTrend, there is a knob in the back that you turn and it raises the harness height for you. SO easy.
As a safety note, while rear facing, harness straps should always be slightly below the baby's shoulders.

*Canopy*
I liked that the canopy had to axises- one on the front and one on the back. It made it so the canopy could be pulled all the way down in front (would leave the back of the head exposed) for those times that the sun is coming right straight at your baby's face. I'm sure that most carseats have this feature, but we had borrowed a Graco Snugride 22 with Alex and the canopy did not have a formed back on it's own axis. It had an elastic that came down and hooked onto the back of the seat. If you wanted to move the canopy forward, you lost all tension and it was uneffective. I'm not sure if their newer ones have the same set up or not, but just know that being able to put the canopy where ever you want it and having it be LARGE is a good thing.

*Harness Tightener*
To tighten the harness in our BabyTrend, all that was required was pulling on a strap in the front. To loosen, you pushed on button by the strap and pulled the harness out. It was REALLY easy to use and makes it easy to make sure that you have a good tight fit when your baby may be wearing bulky clothing one day and less bulky the next. It is important that straps are tight on the harness. You should not be able to pinch any part of the harness strap. A loose harness will not hold a child in their carseat in an accident. Also, on the note of bulky clothing, kids should not wear coats in their carseat. If in an accident, the coat would compress and leave slack in the the harness, thus causing a potential for the child to come out of the harness. To deal with the cold, either put their coat on them backwards after buckling them or use blankets. We dress our kids in fleece jackets (which are fine for carseats) and then do blankets that we keep in the car. We also bring coats that we put on before we get out of the car if needed.


*Crotch Buckle*
The crotch buckle on the BabyTrend is a little bit tricky. It's commonly referred to as a "puzzle" style, meaning that you have to interlock the 2 pieces from each side of the harness and then insert them as one unit into the buckle. After about 6 months this really didn't bug me that much, but it is a harder buckle to get the hang of.

*Triangle Handle*
This was a good idea I think in theory. In actual use, I found the handle on the Graco to be much easier to grip and carry on my arm. I thought that the triangle would give more surface area on my arm to disperse the weight, but it did not. If you don't know about the triangle handle, find someone with one and try it out or borrow a (larger) baby and try one out at a store. It's different once you are trying to carry about a baby in it.

*Weight*
This carseat is heavier than the Graco that we borrowed. This was another factor that made the Graco easier to carry around. I think though that the BabyTrend has more metal in the frame, which does make it a little safer. That said though, Graco seats are still safe.

*Lower Weight/Height Limit*
Many infant carseats now go up to 30 lbs and 30". To give you an idea, Kaitlyn is smaller for her age (20% for weight at almost 21 lbs at her 15 month appointment), but tall (31" 69%). If we had a higher weight limit infant seat with a 32 or 35" height limit, she could still  be riding in that.
That said, I'm not sure that I'd want to still be lugging that thing around with a 15 month in it and I'm not sure that she'd love it either. I can't imagine carrying a 30 pound child in an infant carseat!
Many times the higher weight/height limit seats cost more, so you do have to weigh whether spending that extra money is worth it. 
One thing that was annoying is that Alex outgrew the infant seat (I think by height first and weight shortly after) at 9 months. Our original plan was to put him in a cheaper forward facing harnessed seat when he turned one, but because he was not yet 1, we had to go with a convertible.

Moving to a convertible wasn't that big of a deal since he could already sit in grocery carts and such. We just lost some of the portability and ease of not having to buckle/unbuckle your child constantly that you get with an infant seat. In the end, I am glad that we went with a convertible instead of jumping right to a forward facing only booster seat because it allowed him to rear face for a longer amount of time and would allow for a child to ride harnessed until they were 40 lbs. (which he just barely hit at 4 years old).

Tomorrow when I talk about our convertible seats I'll elaborate more or rear facing and harnessing age/weight. :)

Overall, I would recommend our infant carseat. It was a reasonable price and the awesome features on it made the less than ideal features (mostly) non-issues.
My number one recommendation to people would be to borrow an infant carseat from someone you know. People usually only use them for about a year and then they go into storage until they have another baby.
Carseats only last for a certain amount of years before they have to be replaced, so many times people won't even be able to use their original carseat for their later babies. Someone you know may have a carseat that will expire in a year, but they know they won't be having another baby before it expires. You could even offer to buy it from them for pretty cheap since they would have gotten years of use out of it and will no longer be able to use it. (When buying a carseat always buy from someone you know so that you can be sure that the carseat was not involved in an accident).
On that note, wait until as close to your due date as possible to buy your carseat because whatever is on the sticker as the manufacture date is going to determine your expiration date. One day you may really wish that you had waited another month or 2 so that you had a couple extra months to use your seat before it expires.