Re: Infant car seats
I did alot of research on car seats prior to the birth of my daughter. It is one of the best investments you can make. The best is to get a travel system. This way if you go anywhere, you don't need to take the baby out of the car seat and put it in the stroller. The car seat comes out and attaches onto the stroller, and the baby is not disturbed at all. Our daughter sleeps right through her car and stroller rides and is never disturbed. The stroller fits in the trunk (tight fit in a corolla, easy fit in camry). The only thing is, the travel system car seat will only last you a year, then you will have to get the infant/toddler seat (the stroller is good till forever). But the amount of hassle it saves you in the first year, specially when the baby is very little is priceless.
We bought evenflo, it was rated pretty decent by consumer reports. The best of course is Britax, which runs in the 300 range. I know NHTSA has a website with car seat reviews, you should check that out.
Congrats by the way!