Birthday Bash: The First Years Car Seat Review

The last, the very last, Birthday Bash giveaway. Why? Because tomorrow my little babe turns one year old! That’s a whole ‘nother post of course. Today I want to focus on this awesome review and giveaway.

What to give the kid who has everything? A big ticket item of course. One thing every baby is going to need eventually is a bigger car seat. I mean, we went from this:

2 days old – oh, what a peanut!

to this:

11+ months – So Big!

Oh those two pictures are going to make me CRY! I can’t believe a year has past. And clearly the baby carrier has outlived its usefulness!

Time to step it up to the convertible car seat. I was so nervous to select this seat, because there are so many on the market. Which one is best for my baby? Fortunately, The First Years generously sent me their True Fit C670 convertible car seat and solved my worries.

I went directly to the Safety First Connecticut’s  car seat installation / inspection station to get this seat installed correctly. After the last time I had my car seat inspected and found out everything I was doing wrong, I was not taking any chances!

Fortunately, the police officer (same one) didn’t recognize me as the “bad mom” who had tons of projectiles in her car the last time. And she didn’t have any comments about my car or car seat. So back to “good mom” status!

At first, this car seat looked complicated – I am NOT good at assembling products! The officer told me it wasn’t complicated, but since you have to remove the fabric seat cover to adjust the straps before install, it is a little time-consuming. However, all the belt-paths are color coded so you can figure out where to put every strap.

Actually, she was done installing in less than 20 minutes, so I am confident if we need to move the seat, my husband (resident-expert-on-all-things-baby-assembly) will figure it out. He’s like Hannibal on the A-Team.

I quickly fell in love with The First Years car seat – it is so much easier than the other car seat we bought for my husband’s SUV. And here are some features:

• Safety features: Side impact tested, 5-point harness, works with the Latch system, Rebound Energy Management (TM) (for after the initial impact – what a smart idea!).
• No rethread harness – easy to adjust
• Easy-off pads make cleaning, well, easy! Because of the No Rethread harness, you just pop off the seat cover without undoing all the straps.
• Removable headrest – because you can use this car seat for babies 5-65 lbs. the headrest comes off for up to 22 lb babies. I left ours on, because our baby weighs about 20 lbs.
• 5-Star Ease of Use Rating by NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Administration).

My favorite aspect, after the super-soft fabric, is that the harness is easy to tighten (my complaint about our OTHER car seat is it is difficult to ratchet up to a snug fit). Although in a rear-facing position, it can be tricky to get your finger under the latch to loosen the harness, otherwise, this is a smooth-operating system.

The seat design is such that I can easily lift my baby into the bucket seat – I don’t have to lift him high and then plop him down. The harness buckle never flaps down underneath him so it’s always right there when I need to buckle instead of wedged under his leg or something. And since the harness releases so easy, taking him out when he is sleeping is a breeze – he never even wakes up most of the time!

Yes, I promise he really does love his new car seat!

Look how happy our baby is in his new seat – okay so maybe happy isn’t the word for that expression but he does enjoy his seat. And THIS mama is happy about our new True Fit convertible car seat by The First Years!!

Buy it: You can purchase The First Years True Fit C670 convertible car seat by locating a retailer on The Learning Curve.

Win it: YES! One reader will win their own The First Years True Fit C670 convertible car seat – can you believe it!? Many thanks to The First Years for this awesome sponsorship!

Disclosure: I was sent a product to facilitate this review. I was not compensated in any other way, and all opinions are 100% my own.