A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to attend a home party where I (met and) hung out with some other great bloggers and was introduced to the new Graco SnugRide ClickConnect 40.  Food, friends,and baby gear?  Fun!  It was a bit of a drive, over the river and through the woods 😉 .  But it was a lot of fun and I’m glad I went.

I have never had an infant seat.  Of course, we’ve had all of our babies in carseats!  But we’ve always used the convertible kind; I’ve never had an infant seat/carrier.  But when I got to bring home the Graco SnugRide ClickConnect 40 to try out with our own little one I discovered that, in addition to the really great features of this specific seat, there are some distinct benefits to this type of seat in general.

Installation is the primary one.  In order to get a baby’s carseat properly installed, you have to put weight on it as you tighten the seat belt.  The problem with that, when the seat is rear-facing, is that you have to try to climb inside it to get to the bottom and push down with a knee.  Unless the seat comes off the base.  Then you can just press down on the base, and there are no acrobatics involved!  This one is especially easy to install because of the plenty-large holes for feeding the buckle through, and this nifty clip that does away with the need for a separate locking clip:

(You can also install this with a LATCH system.  I haven’t ever had a new enough car to be very familiar with how they work.  But I do know that the LATCH buckles tuck away nicely when not in use so you don’t bang up your shins or hips with them when you carry the seat from car to car.)

The ClickConnect has eight different recline positions.

This is a little bit of a misnomer, though.  There’s not really a lot of difference in the angle of recline between most of the positions; rather, these are designed to back the seat up away from the back of the car’s seat so the baby has more leg room.

An indicator shows you if the seat is sufficiently level.

We do not have very flat seats, but as you can see, even at 8, the recline position is just fine for a baby over 3 months old.  (No red should be showing in the indicator window.  For a tiny newborn, none of the dark blue should be showing, either – as you see in the photo above.)

Now, I admittedly have very small children – my daughter is 21 months old and only about as many pounds.  But even at only a setting of 4, she has plenty of leg room.  In fact, she can stretch her legs out completely straight.

The other thing that Graco has made super-easy with this seat is adjusting the straps.  This is really nice at this time of year, when you’re going back and forth between light jackets, heavy coats, and no coat at all.  It seems like the straps need adjusting almost every time you get in the car!  It’s really, really easy with this seat, though, and you don’t have to take it out.

To adjust the snugness of the straps, just press that orange button between baby’s feet, and either pull on the strap end that’s next to it (to tighten), or tug on the shoulder straps (to loosen).

That’s not all you can do, though!  You can even adjust the height of the shoulder straps, with one hand, and without removing the seat.  See those orange buttons?  Pinch those together and slide the assembly up or down.  Then release and ensure it locks in place.  Voila!  That’s it.  Really. (In this picture you can also see the storage for the locking clip, which you would use when buckling the seat in without the base.)

There are plenty of strap positions to allow for a full range of heights.  And as you slide the straps upward (which you would do because your baby is getting taller), the padded section of the seat that surrounds baby’s head moves up, as well.  This ensures that the energy-absorbing foam is in the right place, regardless of baby’s height.

A couple other nifty features:

• there’s an infant insert (seen in the photo at the top of the post) to add padding that enables a tiny baby to fit better in the seat without flopping.  It’s in two pieces, and these pieces are very easy to remove or replace.
• A pull-up footrest that helps protect your car seats from baby’s potentially muddy feet.

Livvy seems to like it!

So, what I really like about this seat:

• Easy to install.  (The locking clip is tough to lock and unlock, but it’s very simple.)
• VERY easy to adjust.
• Great safety features: 5-point harness, 2-piece locking chest clip, energy-absorbing foam.
• The buckles click very obviously into place, so you know when it’s buckled.

What I don’t like so much:

• The carrier doesn’t have one of those zig-zaggy handles so you don’t have to contort your arm to carry baby.  (This is the only really significant one.  You’d think with as much attention as Graco paid to detail in every other part of this seat, they’d have addressed this.)
• You have to really shove on the buckles to buckle them, and push really hard on the button to release them.  (This is good for making sure baby is in securely, but I’m a little concerned I’d struggle to get baby out quickly in an emergency.  It might loosen up a bit with use, though.)
• It’s pretty hard to fit into our cars – even the van.  It required pushing front seat so far forward that they are safety hazard for their own passengers.  I don’t really think this is specific to this seat, though.
• Petty detail: this only comes in two prints.  One is gorgeous, but girly.  The more gender-neutral one is pretty ugly, in my opinion, incorporating a sort of baby-poop yellowish-green.

Definitely a quality seat!  All baby seats have a few quirks, and the ones this seat has are pretty minor.  In the meantime, some of the major annoyances of other seats are addressed here quite nicely.  (And honestly, I think they are ultimately safety features.  If adjusting your child’s straps takes an act of Congress, you’re less likely to keep them adjusted to a safe tension.)

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.

This post is being shared at the Tuesday Baby Link-Up.