choosing Baby girl’s carseat and stroller

The difference between having a baby at 21 and no idea what the hell is going on and 24 where you are fully aware of every single baby brand/product available is crazy and overwhelming! You would think that following all these other mom bloggers, reading countless reviews, and hearing the same product being mentioned would have my mind automatically made up but there I was spending every single free moment of mine researching carseats and strollers.

I was so stuck. I was stuck between deciding if it was worth it dropping the big bucks on a stroller that was set for a newborn and a toddler that grew to fit two toddlers. I was stuck between brands and the hundreds of reviews. I was also stuck on what was most practical for our family. After about a whole month of researching and reading a crazy amount of blog posts (blog posts are the best product reviews guys!) we made up our mind!!!!

We decided on the Maxi-Cosi Mico Max Plus Carseat and the Maxi-Taxi Stroller Frame and both are pictured below!

These items weren’t cheap by any means but after a lot of research this is what was best for us right now and in the long run. The Maxi-Cosi Car seat was $299.99 (currently 15% off here) and the Maxi-Taxi frame was $129.99 (also currently 15% off here).

Where we live the only places that sell baby goods are Target and Walmart and although there is nothing wrong with buying baby stuff there, I’m a very hands on person and their selection isn’t the biggest/nor is there ever anyone there to help. After deciding what carseat I wanted I looked where I could find it and Nordstrom was the closest place to us (I am all about getting my Nordy Reward points lol). It’s about a 40 minute drive to Nordstrom from our house so I went there and had someone help me and talk to me all about the carseat. At this point I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t really care about the stroller as much as just having the dang carseat. Nordstrom has an insane amount of baby gear in-store that I wasn’t aware of. I had two women that spent over an hour talking to me about everything. They not only showed me how use the carseats/bases, and how easy it was to collapse all the strollers, but also had me do it myself. Both of these women were moms of multiples and understood everything that I was concerned with/was curious about and it made me feel so much better. I have pictures below with captions as to what really sold me.

Here is the carseat itself. It’s beautiful! We picked out Nomad Grey.

The carseat base came with the most detailed instructions! So crazy to think this is a selling point, but I don’t feel stupid or like I’m doing it wrong looking at this.

The carseat base has a stand that adds a whole new level of safety. My bed is a terrible example but the base stand helps to add resistance if the carseat were to move.

Lastly, the small details of the carseat. This is such a silly one but I love the leather zipper pulls on it.

Since the carseat was our main focus and quite the investment. We then focused on a stroller. This was probably the hardest of everything because Laken is so freaking independent and never wants to be in her carseat. Honestly, all I could think about was how much of a waste it would be to get a double stroller knowing she would rather walk holding our hand. I also had a hard time finding a double stroller with reviews that didn’t say ‘can’t fit through doorways’ or ‘very hard to push and turn’. Double strollers are very large and if I could avoid having to get one, I totally would. There was one double stroller I had my eye on and it was because the reviews were out of this world and it was very functional. The only downside was that the stroller was close to $1,200 and I did not have that kind of money to drop. Which is why we decided to go the route we did with the Maxi-Taxi.

Here is the Maxi-Taxi – cupholder and all! It is by far the easiest “stroller” to collapse.

These are the attachments that hold the carseat in the Maxi-Taxi. They can be removed and replace with other parts to carry seats and bassinets.

We ultimately made our decision on how often we’d be out. We don’t travel, we rarely go in high traffic public areas and the only place I feel somewhat adventurous going now is the grocery store or Target. We currently have a stroller that we use with Laken. It’s nothing fancy but we like it and it does what we need it to do. Kyler and I had a little bit of a sit down and realized that we both want to wear baby girl as much as possible. We each got special Solly Baby wraps that we’re thrilled to use and there’s no point in having a double stroller with an empty seat when we plan on baby wearing so much. With that we decided that the Maxi-Taxi was the way to go.

In the pictures above you can see the arms that the Maxi-Taxi has. Those hold the carseat in place. They also are made for additional attachments like a toddler seat and bassinet. If we ever get to the point of needing to purchase a seat it’ll still be cheaper than what it would be to get a double stroller and chances are we would get so much more use out of it.

Down the road we may consider getting a double stroller. We plan on riding out using these two products until we are in need of an upgrade but I’m really happy with our choice.

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