As my belly is growing and I am now into my 6th month, I'm getting the urge to shop for baby gear...Okay let's be honest, I had that urge as soon as I saw the pee stick with a "+" sign on it. But now I'm getting serious about it, like looking with the intent of buying soon.
The main thing that is on my mind right now is a car seat/stroller. I would like something that I can use for most of my kids, if not all, so I'm looking for something nice and sturdy but not too expensive. I'm just curious as to what all you mom's have used with your kids and what your reviews are on certain brands. I've done my research online but now I want to hear from my family and friends which brands they like the best.
I've read that it's best to get a travel system which includes a car seat and stroller that the car seat snaps into and I hear Graco is a good brand but I don't know how sturdy it is. Or should I not get a stroller at all? Just get a carrier instead, like a Baby Bjorn? Help ladies, obviously I am clueless!
8 comments:
Good question. I still had a rough time trying to decide what to get with Gray. For me the travel system worked well with Mac but I honestly never used it with Gray. He was all bjorn (which is a must!) but with you all moving off to another state you must think about airport travel. Which is why we got the combi travel system. The bad thing about it is it's small and short. But the good thing about it is it's small! It folds up super tight and the car seat is light. which makes it perfect for traveling. but if I had to go with looks and comfort I would go with chico. They're adorable.
being both the youngest, we had lots of hand-me-downs, so we experimented with a lot of stuff-- and we had a graco snugride (carseat), which we loved-- but turns out if you have a tall baby (which we had no doubts we would have) they grow out of most infant carriers in like 6 months; but i loved being able to have him in the carrier and sleep wherever we were--so i found a carrier for tall babies--the graco safe seat, (which has a ton of super-cute designs too) anyway, that's my advice on the carseat if you think your babies are going to be tall. emery wasn't a snuggler, so i only used the baby bjorn a handful of times--but now that he's bigger, he loves his kelty hiking pack. it's funny how much research you have to do for carseats huh-- i always just thought i'd go to the store and pick the cutest one out-- it's worth it though, so good luck!
Buying a car seat is a tough one. The car/seat combo is convienet and sterdy. The only problem is that the car seat weight only goes up to 20-23 pounds if I remember right. For Hailey, she is getting to long for hers and she is 5 months. So I will have to get her another seat. But since she is getting older I won't really need to carry her in a car seat every where.
Plus a combo I think is cheaper then having to go and buy separate car seat and stroller. Brands that I like are Eddie Bauer and Graco.
The Graco system is good for the price. You will want a stroller for sure, the bjorn is a bonus if you have the cash.
We got the Chico Extreme Car seat and we loved it. It holds up to 30 lbs. We also spent a lot of time on amazon, we didn't buy anything from there but it has a lot of Customer reviews. That helped us decide what was the best things for our baby.
I have used Graco with all of my kids, but good luck trying to use it with all of them. I don't know how many you plan on, but ours were pretty trashed after two kids. I have also been told that all car seats "expire" after five years. I like that the car seat of Graco can snap into the stoller. It is nice in cold weather to not have to take the baby out of the carseat to put into the stroller. I really only used the graco stroller for the first couple of months though and then I would always use a jogging stroller or umbrella stoller. Then when I had two kids I got a double jogger and double umbrella, so we have quite the stroller collection. Good luck...oh, and I would pick a dark color carseat, the light ones get dirty looking really fast.
The Baby Bjorn or Snuggli is good UNTIL they weigh too much - maybe 4-5 months, and then you're gonna WANT the stroller to hold them (and lock them in when they get older!) The thing I like about these are that the baby THINKS you're "holding" her and she isn't fussy (& often falls asleep) but your arms/hands are free - to shop, do dishes, make dinner, etc. Hubby uses it, too!
I've had 3 single strollers and 2 double strollers over the years. We had a "Jeep" stroller that something got bent on within the first little while and they sent a whole brand new stroller...later, I ran over the wheels of it and they sent me a new wheel attachment!! I was very pleased with that company's Cust. Service!
My single strollers were:
1st- Graco stroller (did not come w/ car seat)
2nd - Evenflo stroller & car seat combo
3rd - Graco "Travel System" (car seat incl.)
I prefer the ones the car seat clips into - also check for the height of the handles - some of our stollers were higher & more comfortable to push (esp. for Matt) because of that.
The double ones were:
1st - Jeep
2nd - InSTEP (jogging stroller) - the tires always go flat - we have a lot of stickers around, I guess - if it weren't for all the tire problem, it'd be so nice.
Thanks everyone for your advice, I'm loving this! I might ask more questions just because I like to hear everyone's opinions on things so I hope you don't mind. :)
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