I have this small and weird obsession with baby buggies (strollers, prams, pushchairs, whatever suits you). I can’t help but check out every one we pass. I even try to guess what kind each buggy is before we get too close. When we were living in Dublin I used to get teased a lot for the number of buggies we owned. Even the taxi driver we used regularly used to comment on how I had a different buggy every time he collected me. Well, it’s true I’ve had a lot of buggies in my mommy years but they’ve all served a different purpose and were useful (or unuseful and therefore replaced) in their own way.
Classic American family, we started with the travel system. Based on the recommendation from a child seat safety expert I know we went with the Chicco Keyfit 30 and opted for the lighter weight (and cheaper!) coordinating Trevi stroller. This served us well through Honeybun’s infancy. It was nice to be able to take her from the car in her car seat into the buggy and to be able to lay her down when we didn’t want the seat. However, after only two round-trip airplane rides the poor stroller had been severely abused and no longer steered well and became too cumbersome.
So when Honeybun was around a year old we made buggy purchase number two, an umbrella stroller. We stayed with Chicco and got a Ct0.6. It’s not that I have a thing for Chicco, but I really wanted a basket and sunshade and the Chicco was the cheapest option. This became our everyday, go to buggy. Was perfect for running around town, could easily be taken in and out of the car and when we moved to Dublin was great for buses and trains (other than at Tara St. Station when they warn you to “Mind the Gap” and I did indeed almost loose her in the gap the first time as the wheel span wasn’t long enough to reach from train to platform). I did break a wheel off running for the train on St. Patrick’s Day but Chicco customer service was fantastic and mailed us an entirely new buggy within a few weeks since it was still under warranty.
We drove the Ct0.6 for a while with only one wheel but after a trip back to Massachusetts and another wheel getting knocked off we need a temporary buggy! So we went to Walmart and bought the cheapest stroller they had. It was great cause it was extremely lightweight and had a huge basket. Problem? It was more like a doll stroller and my over 6 foot hubby had a terrible time pushing it. We took it all around Paris on our first European adventure and were definitely ready to get the Ct0.6 back when the replacement finally came! We’ve been using that replacement buggy ever since.
Before moving to Dublin, knowing we weren’t going to have a car but I would have 2 kids to tote around I convinced hubby to get a double buggy. We went with the Jeep Traveler Tandem stroller mostly based on cost and size (it was one of the smaller tandems available in the US at the time) and the fact that the Chicco car seat fit in the back. It was terrible! I hardly ever used it and after a terrible experience trying to get the girls to the doctor in the snow with it I gave up entirely. I spent most of Sugarplum’s infancy using the Trevi. I would carry Sugarplum in a Baby Bjorn when we went places, pushing Honeybun and usually on the way home I would push Sugarplum and let Honeybun walk. So, I found another (much more expensive) buggy I wanted and sold the Jeep (made 100 euro on it!)
So when we returned to the states for a home visit when Sugarplum was 7 months old (and beginning to kill my back in the Baby Bjorn), we splurged and got the buggy of my dreams, a Britax B-Ready. I got the attachments so I could use the Chicco car seat facing rearwards in the back for Sugarplumand we were all in heaven. Despite being over 100 pounds when loaded with kids, seats and gear, it was still so easy to maneuver and take places (I only found a handful of Dublin doors it didn’t fit in due to the extra wide back wheels). We didn’t travel with it a lot since it was so bulky and I was terrified of it getting damaged but it became our everyday around town buggy and I used it with the rear infant car seat until we moved back to Florida when Honeybun was nearly 4 and Sugarplum was nearly 2. I found the rear seat real cheap when we got back so I went ahead and bought it and used it for a few months until it became too cumbersome for me to maneuver with the increased child weight and my expanding belly. I still use it for walking to Target (and use the back seat for holding my groceries). I fully expect it to come back into double use when baby #3 arrives in a few months, though. While Sugarplum loves to walk, she’s not good at paying attention and neither are the drivers in our area so I prefer her to be securely locked up.
After taking the B-Ready to Oslo, Amsterdam and Warsaw we realized it was not the best for travelling. We took a Baltic cruise when the girls were 3 and 1 and took the Trevi and Ct0.6 (which is a good thing, the B-Ready would not have fit through the stateroom door without folding it!). It worked but not when we needed car seats. So when we planned A Holy Land cruise for a few months later I opted for an easier option. We got a Combi Coccoro seat and stroller frame. It is essentially a travel system but takes a child up to 40 pounds and the car seat can be rear or forward facing. It was convenient but steers terrible so it is now only for travelling when we need the car seat (this is also the car seat Sugarplum uses full time since outgrowing the infant carrier).
So, here comes baby #3. We have the Double but it’s nearly impossible for me to take in and out of the car and the Ct0.6 isn’t infant appropriate since it doesn’t lay flat (and doesn’t safely take an infant carrier). So onto buggy number 7, the brand new Chicco Liteway Plus. It’s a brand new buggy that is a lightweight travel system (where was this when Honeybun was a baby?!?!). We got it for nearly half price thanks to Babies’R’Us’s great trade in event (we took in the Trevi and got 25% off any new stroller) and a Christmas gift card. I’ve yet to use it but have high hopes for how it will work for our family of the future.
