Behavioral Question about Side-by-Side Strollers

[Belacane]

Hi all,

Alex will be 18 months when our next baby is born in September. We live in a weird area - a cul-de-sac with no sidewalks, and very little traffic, but adjacent to a major, major highway. So I tend to go out in the car to take Alex for walks. Therefore I need a double stroller that will fit in the back of my Ford Escape.

Well, after amazing amounts of research on strollers I think we have ended up choosing the Combi Twin Savvy. It is a fabulous folding stroller, but it IS a side-by-side. Babies R Us had it and I tried the folding and checked out the weight and size, and it seemed perfect.

My question to all of you is...for those of you whose children are close in age, like Alex and the new baby will be - do you find that your older child physically prodded, poked, whatever, the younger baby, when the younger baby was much too young to react to it? I don't want to buy a side-by-side if the baby will be poked and punched and nudged and jabbed while he or she is trying to sleep.

What do you think? Is a side-by-side going to work out?

Please note, I have NO experience with toddlers. I had no friends with babies and Alex is my learning experiment. Right now he's still only understanding his name and the word "NO" and the occasional "bottle" or "binky" - but perhaps by the time he is 18 months I will be able to tell him, "Don't poke your brother" and he will understand.

Thanks.

[shandrin]

my 2 youngest children{i have 3} are not quite that close, their 25mths apart BUT i wouldn't use a side by side for that reason alone, although my daughter is older than your son will be she still is just a little to 'helpful' when it comes to her baby brother, i don't have them sit beside each other in the car either, she was a little to interested there as well. So my idea would be to have a look at another model prehaps a tandem?
peg perego has a new model out called the duette it has two seats that can move around so their won't be a 'back seat' seeing problem in the future and a huge basket like on gracos, also each seat fully reclines, helpful when kids are both little, i'm not 100% certain but i don't think the combi seats fully recline, if so that's a problem for an infant. Or another option would be the tendertwin also by peg perego{i have this} it has a fully reclining rear seat and a part recline for the front, fairly light{24lbs} and is simple to open/close only downs would be the small basket and the problem down the road with the younger child in back seeing out but overall has worked well for me.