Snugrider Seat Frame

Posted on Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 1:09 pm

Own a Graco Quattro Travel System. Very bulky & heavy...Alternatives?

I'm due any day now and I'm trying to get everything in place! I currently own a Graco Quattro Tour Travel System - Kasbah. It's beautiful and well built but it's very large and bulky. I know there will be days when I want to take something lighter. So basically I have 2 options:
1) Purchase a lightweight stroller (such as Koolcraft Travel about) where the infant seat will not snap in.
or
2) Purchase a Graco - SnugRider Infant Car Seat Carrier Stroller Frame where all Graco infant seats snap in. But the problem with this option is that there's no stroller after the child grows out of the infant seat.

I have the Graco Infant Safeseat so it's bigger then the Snugride. Supposely, the Safeseat holds children up to 30 lbs. Which option do you think is the better solution? Is is really hard to remove a sleeping baby from a carseat to a stroller? I'm a 1st time mom so I'm clueless!

Honestly I only used the car seat snapped in the stroller 3 times, and that's through two kids. Car seats are uncomfortable, they cause the baby to overheat and when they are snapped into a stroller they make the center of gravity too high. Honestly my infant carrier goes from the house to the car, and usually even just sits in the car at home. I almost never take it out when visiting or shopping.

I really doubt you are going to do much moving around the infant seat once the baby is over 20lbs. Maybe if it is very cold it is beneficial to put baby in the seat and then under lots of blankets and then haul it out to the car (its better not to put too many layers or a snow suit on a baby in a carseat, obviously this isn't always possible to avoid)

If you tend to need the carseat where you are going (like you walk and then get picked up in a car) then the stroller frame is a lifesaver.

Otherwise you could use the quattro until the baby is old enough for an umbrella stroller. Or you can get a reclining umbrella stroller that can be used from birth and just use different strollers for different things.