Lola’s New Seat
Six years ago, Joel and I bought what would be the first of several car seats. I was pregnant with Wyatt, and we decided on the Graco SafeSeat. Almost six years later, and having been used with all three of our kids, we’re now a month away from that seat expiring. It has been a great seat, and held up great over the years. So when I was recently introduced to Graco’s new SnugRide Click Connect 40 car seat, I first did some research on it. It didn’t take me long to get excited about this seat and now I’m excited to share my experience with you!
Right around the time that Weston turned 2 years old, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with the recommendation to keep kids rear facing in their car seats until age 2. Can you believe that children are more than FIVE times safer when rear facing? We switched both Wyatt and Weston to front facing at age 1, but with this information, I’ve been planning to keep Lola rear-facing until age 2.
A worry that I might share with some of you is where a child’s legs are supposed to go when they’re rear facing and not a small infant anymore. The SnugRide Click Connect 40’s base actually adjusts to allow more leg room as your child grows, with 8 different recline positions. Genius. It also has a little “kick plate” that can raise up and protect your seat from any less-than-clean little shoes.
With this seat, I can still use it as a normal infant carrier (it can fit babies as small as 4 pounds). Considering it’s made for kids up to age 2 and 40 pounds, I was concerned that it would be large and bulky compared to our old SafeSeat, but in fact it’s actually even a hair narrower and very similar in size. When Lola’s big enough that we won’t be needing to carry her in the seat anymore, it can just stay in the vehicle.
One of my favorite features? The harness and headrest adjust with ONE hand on the back of the seat! No more re-threading the straps to raise the shoulder height as your child grows. So handy.
And on a less-important note, I really like the look of the Moonstruck model (it’s also comes in Mena, a pink/brown pattern). It’s so nice to have a car seat that’s truly neutral. It’s completely gray other than the hint of olive piping you see.
If you’ve been wondering about an easier way to keep your child rear facing longer (and keeping them happy at the same time), I recommend taking a look at this seat!
The Graco SnugRide® Click Connect™ 40 – the first and only newborn to two-year infant car seat that actually grows with your baby from four pounds all the way up to 40 pounds. The car seat is designed for a parent on the go. The infant car seat can be easily removed from the base and used as a carrier when the infant is small, providing portability and convenience so you can easily move your infant in and out of the car without disturbing them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently made the recommendation to keep all children in rear-facing car seats until the age of 2. Graco set out to make this product so parents can keep infants rear facing longer while still keeping them comfortable.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Graco. The opinions and text are all mine.
My son grew so tall so quickly (6ft women in my family in addition to 6ft8 men) and we couldn’t find a seat that could accommodate the legs! Having a kid with their legs folded up for hours at a time was not my idea of comfort either because then their legs fell asleep and they couldn’t walk. I’m impressed with legroom option but could you ask one of your friends with an older child to ‘test’?
Wow. I didn’t pay any attention to the seat. I was too busy looking at those beautiful blue eyes and chubby cheeks. ;)
Denise – Here’s a link to a review that has a photo of a toddler who is just over the maximum height (he put her in it for demonstration purposes only): http://carseatblog.com/18729/graco-snugride-40-click-connect-video-review/. Hope that helps!
Such a sweet baby and cool car seat!!
@Denise My daughter rearfaced in her car seats until she was 3 1/2 (age two is the recommended minimum…if they fit in a seat rearfacing longer, they should continue to do so until they outgrow their seats) and she’s all legs. Kids are much more flexible than adults so sitting with their legs crossed, etc in a car seat isn’t uncomfortable to them. In fact, having their legs dangle from a forward facing seat tends to be more uncomfortable. Some seats offer much more leg room than others so it doesn’t hurt to try a few out at a place like Toys R Us where they let you try them out in your car.
Great info for us moms! Thanks!
You’ve sold me and I’m not a mom or pregnant! Ha. but I was my niece’s nanny when she was an infant, and I pick up a 1.5 year old a couple times a week from day care in his infant car seat. He is small for his age but quickly running out of leg room!
That looks like a nice seat but my concern is actually how tall will it allow the child to get and still fit them? The harness heights are actually one of the important things to keep in mind and not just the weight limits on seats when considering extended rear facing. My kids outgrow rear facing by height before they ever outgrow it by weight. I also don’t find a practical need for a carrier type seat that far into rear facing. And in four kids none of them have ever complained about crossing their legs or bending their knees or any such thing in the back and my 3rd child rf’d to three and my daughter is well on her way to that point too.
Samantha – I think the maximum height for the seat is somewhere close to 35″. My three year old is the same as it sounds like your kids have been, too tall before they’re over the maximum weight. So like any carseat, they’d need to move onto a different seat at that point. I think the convenience is being able to use the same seat from birth to age 2, even though you wouldn’t be carrying them around in it anymore by that point – kind of funny to imagine though, hehe!