Anne Neville, the Baby Bargains book has helped us immensely as we prepare for the arrival of our baby. It explains and makes recommendations for all kinds of baby gear (cribs, strollers, etc.), and it includes a full discussion of car seats.
I definitely second the recommendation of this book. I think most of the infant seats have some sort of leveling system so you can tell the seat is the right angle and stuff. I’ve heard of putting a rolled up towel or foam noodle toward the back if you have especially deep seats. Other than that, the trick is to get it all strapped in tight enough.
My niece knows everything there is to know about car seats. Sher’s about to start her final year in engineering school. She’s an approved official car-seat installer for the fire department. All ask her opinion.
StG
I second visiting car-seat.org and reading the forums for a bit before making a purchase. I can’t tell you how much I have learned there and still learning.
If I had to do it over again I’d probably skip the infant seat and go straight to a convertible. Make sure you get a convertible that rear faces to at least 40 lbs, some go up to 45 lbs. rear facing. My DS was able to stay RF until he was 3.
Infant seats can be convenient but they are also heavy as hell and super uncomfy to lug around. My DS outgrew his infant seat at 7 months so pretty much a waste. JMO.
ds, rf, wtf? 
I don’t know if it’s an option, but here in Australia you can rent the baby capsules, rather than buying them outright, which means you can save your money for a convertible or forward facing seat.
The new official recommendations are to keep your kid rear facing until 2 - so a convertible is a rally good idea as most kids outgrow capsules well before then. I have a Safe N Sound Meridian which took #1 from birth until 2, and #2 is in it now - will suit her up to 4 years #1 moved into a Safe N Sound Maxi Ridere which I think takes her to 26kg, which will be closer to 8 or so. Both are by Britax I believe.
We also have regular car seat reviews by ourstate transport authorities which may be offered in the US as well?
We obviously didn’t bother with a capsule and did the lift and carry when required. Sometimes I spend half an hour with the iPad in the car if we feel like a sleep is well due and we don’t want to risk moving her; but I agree with the advice given already to not be tempted to let your kid sleep too long in the capsule as it is meant to bad for their spines.
As an aside, I don’t have a car during the week so the kids are mainly pram based, although I love my slings too. Miss 5 months was having a sooky day today and only wanted to be held; strapped on my Ergo and made dinner and got things ready for tomorrow while she sat there contentedly. Would really recommend one as a travel option if you haven’t already considered it.
Just as an aside, using the word “capsule” for a child seat is funny to American ears. The only capsules we have are pills or spaceships.
Ha, no, of course not, but I had heard so much about this ahead of time that I assumed it was intrinsically part of the experience, like seeing the little baby ID bracelet, and taking her footprints, and (in my head) having someone cheerfully check to make sure the baby is in a car seat. So when no mention at all was made of it, it struck me as completely different from my expectations (which had come mostly from friends’ anecdotes and watching TV sitcoms in which people have a baby).
To continue the hijack, what are the footprints for, anyway? The hospital gave us a cute little card with the footprints on it, but it’s clearly a souvenir item.
I saw infant carriers on clearance at Target the other day; might be a nation-wide thing. They usually have some on display that you can fiddle around with.
I want a car seat that looks like a space capsule!
Oh, I think that’s true at some hospitals. I vaguely remember them asking us, but not going to the car to check. Both my kids stayed in the NICU though, so it’s a blur.
Yeah, there are LOTS of things wrong with sitcom portrayals of birth!
Pure souvenir. It’s not an official birth certificate either - that’s something you have to get from the state. I learned that the hard way a long time ago when I was trying to get some document or something.
How old is your baby now?
You’ll have to custom-design that. But in a few years you can get this:
My husband and I bought a Britax Marathon 70, which doesn’t have the separate seat, but it seems to be working fine so far. The only annoying part was getting our daughter out of the hospital in it. The hospital was somewhat baffled by the fact that the whole thing was one piece, so to be discharged we had to uninstall it from the car, take it to the room on a cart, strap the baby in, then I walked alongside the cart while a nurse wheeled it out to the car. Then we had to take the baby out, reinstall it (kind of a pain in the ass), and put her in again. It hasn’t moved since.
That part was inconvenient. Other than that, it’s been fine. Ivester likes being in a carrier and doesn’t sleep much in the car, so we haven’t missed having the portable seat.
You could have just carried the baby in your arms and put her in the seat when you go to the car, like you do now, couldn’t you?
They may have wanted her in the seat to be wheeled down.
I fully expect that if we had attempted to drive away without Celtling in a carseat the police officers normally assigned to the ER would have been on us like superglue. No way was Celtling leaving that hospital in an unsafe manner.
I do also think though, that had we said “don’t have one/can’t afford it” the hospital would have provided some charity information to help us get one. I’m pretty sure the local fire departments do that.
Yeah, but why? It’s a baby. It doesn’t need a wheelchair.
They have police officers assigned to the ER?
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a hospital ER that didn’t have a Police Officer behind the intake counter. Is that really unusual?