It has been our plan all along to get most if not all of our baby stuff in the US for a variety of reasons.  One being that there is a much better selection of things available in the US and the two, the biggest reason of all, being price.  Sure we could spend $220 on a car seat in Canada but why would we do that if we can go to the states and pay $180.  I will tell you why that is no longer an option for us.

Today we found out that if we purchase a car seat in the states that it could be confiscated at the border, we could be fined or our insurance rates could go up.  Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards has a different set of standards for car seats and therefore you can only use those that have been approved by them.

I am absolutely confident that our daughter would be extremely safe in a car seat from the US.  I am sorry, but other than the sticker saying it met Canadian standards you are getting, in most cases, the exact same car seat from Babys R Us as you would be if you drove 40 minutes south to Washington, the only difference is that you aren’t paying an inflated price.

So despite this we are going to have to follow the rules and get our car seat here.

Anyways…

So as we are descending the escalator I see this couple with a maxi cosi car seat, a car seat that has been in and out of my mind for a few months now.  I nicely asked the husband how he liked his car seat, making sure to preface with the fact that I am pregnant.  Since as you know I really don’t look pregnant and it might scare him that a stranger is asking about a car seat. 

They were both very nice and gave me their honest opinion about the car seat.  They both felt that although the straps were a little bit tricky to latch overall they felt it was a sturdy and safe model.  They liked that the handle was solid plastic and the support was good around the babies head.  It was nice to get an opinion from a real person and not just a review online.

Now that Sean and I are in the car seat/stroller research stage I am constantly looking at what people have to get ideas.  Who would have thought this decision would be so hard.  Thankfully I have Sean to help who will look at the situation and not get distracted with cute patterns and fun designs and will help find a stroller and car seat that are going to be best for us.