For those of you who've bought infant (car) seats in the past couple of years, and you bought one of these brands, which one did you get? How did you decide?
I bought a Graco Snugride (22 lbs./ 29") a couple years ago but didn't know anything about car seats and all the patterns available from Graco, so I just picked one that was on sale in a local BRU. It's black, white, red, and grey, and I thought it would be gender-neutral, but I ended up really disliking the fabric style and still do. I contacted Graco c/s to ask about replacement covers, and for this particular seat there's only about 5 or 6 that she said would work with it. I honestly don't like any of them, either, and just want a really plain one with no pattern, so I've been looking at the Platinum (black & silver, smaller seat) and the Flint (dark grey, larger seat). I've also looked at the Chicco keyfits, and the only reason is because I know a lot of people have them, and I like that they have simpler, more gender-neutral color schemes, and you don't have to get a pattern as you usually do with Graco.
Is it worth having the much higher weight and height limit on the Graco, or is it overkill? DD grew out of her Graco by about 7 months because she was so tall, and she was pretty heavy to carry around in it, too. I'm wondering how long people actually carry the car seat with the kid in it. I know that with the bigger seat I can keep it in the car and not have to carry around the heavy kid + heavy car seat, but is that uncomfortable for an 'older' baby or toddler to sit in? Do they prefer sitting up higher/ more upright in a convertible seat?
Please let me know how you decided to go a certain direction, and what you did for the infant seat (including color/ pattern if you're willing to share ). Did you find the high weight and height limit pretty unmanageable to carry?
Thanks!