With DS we just had a reversible car seat. I brought a capsule with DD. For me it was one of the best things I've brought. DD is 1yr old in 3 weeks and still in it. It made things so much easier not having to wake her every time we went out. If it was nap time and I knew we had to go somewhere soon I would put her down it her capsule and just took her out asleep.
I had the S & S AHR Meridian for DD1 and it is a brilliant carseat, but we got a capsule and travel system before DS because we had a lot of issues with waking DD1 every time we wanted to get in and out of the car. I absolutely love my capsule!!! If I know I am going out, and baby needs to go to sleep, I can put them down in the capsule. My capsule has rockers on the bottom so I never needed to take another rocker with me. As I already had a toddler, the capsule meant that I could put it down on the footpath while I got my toddler/s safely in the car and didn't have to try and juggle baby as well. Baby could sleep in the car and keep sleeping. My pram and capsule made an enclosed space when I was out so I didn't have random strangers touching my sleeping baby (as happened often with DD1). The capsule fits into the top of shopping trolleys and have little feet that grip on. As my capsule was part of a travel system, I kept my kids in it until they were 9 months old (they got too long but my kids are in the 75th percentile for height so other babies might not grow out of it as quickly) - the hire ones are smaller and a little more difficult to carry as the handles aren't as nice.
I can't say enough good things about my capsule. I love love love it and it was probably one of the best things I ever bought for my babies. I paid about $200 for my capsule (it is a Fisher Price one) from Target on sale. My pram is a Mocha Latte Steelcraft. The steelcraft prams were designed for S & S capsules and the FP capsules were designed for a FP pram, but I found they are fairly interchangable. We took our pram into Target before we bought the capsule and tried it out. It turned out to be sooo much better than we ever could have imagined.
If you can keep your baby in the capsule long enough, you may be able to get away with not having to buy a rearward facing carseat. We have the AHR Maxi-riders and they have a slight decline back on them for forward facing babies. If I didn't already have a convertable carseat, I would be likely to try and stretch the capsule out longer. To be honest though, my babies are getting too long for a normal convertable carseat by 9 months too though - they don't stay in it long before I have to turn them around.
Oooo. This is an easy one. Capsule. Then at six months sell on ebay. Wonderful, wonderful invention! Used it with DD 8 and a half years ago and plan to use one again, with this bubs. It was never a question of not having one.. More of which stroller to choose. Good luck with your choice!
It is so unfortunate that they are so dear here. In Canada they range from $150 and up. That includes capsule and stroller. Have fun!
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