Advanced pregnancy and lifting strollers into the car

[jerry_mishkata]

I was wondering if anyone else has a problem lifting 23 lb of stroller into the car trunk when 33 weeks pregnant (or around there)... How do you guys do it with your DOUBLE strollers, the lightest of which weigh like 26 lb (bjcm right)? I feel like I will give birth lifting that weight so I basically stopped lifting my Valco Quad into the car, we just go out with the G-luxe and that means hauling our weekly groceries with it and that is a challenge. Any ideas as to how to put the stroller into the car without actually lifting it? It is one piece...

[swissair81]

Ha! I can't even push the double stroller when I am pregnant (let alone lift it). I was able to put my bee in the car when I was pregnant. That was as much as I could lift.

[Multimama]

Okay, I'm a bit confused. If you go grocery shopping with your car, why do you need to haul your groceries with the G-luxe? Why not just use the shopping cart? (We put the umbrella stroller under the cart while shopping.)

I can't think of any way to get a stroller in a car without lifting it in there, but maybe we can help you brainstorm how to get by without the Quad or what stroller might meet your needs in the meantime.

[jerry_mishkata]

Okay, I'm a bit confused. If you go grocery shopping with your car, why do you need to haul your groceries with the G-luxe? Why not just use the shopping cart? (We put the umbrella stroller under the cart while shopping.)


I am sorry, that was unclear. We live in an apartment complex and the walk from the garage to the apartment is like 5-10 minutes. I have to get the groceries, my DD and myself to the apartment somehow, possibly without a second trip to the garage. They just made metered spots down at the foot of the building which would make the trip much less (but then I'd have to return to the car to get it to the garage) but those spots are always taken by cleaning people and their vans :-( I guess management just found a way to charge them for parking, not really take care of tenants needs.

I love the Quad and the amount of stuff I can bring home in the basket with it, and I usually use the seat as well(if stuff is too much to hang from the hooks) and hold DD's hand while coming home. It is VERY difficult to do that with a fully loaded G-luxe (it has 2 handles and is not one handed push for me, unlike the Quad, very one handed). I have to open the garage door, push the stroller out and prevent my 21 month old to run in the street all at the same time. My husband is no help -- he won't even come shopping with us, not even on a weekend :-( and I have no other help available.

I do lift my DD, who is almost as heavy as the Quad, but somehow she feels less than it. She helps me lift her, holds on to my shoulders, and so on, and the stroller is just "dead weight", KWIM.

[Multimama]

Okay, I think it sounds like the solution here is a different lightweight stroller. Is that in your budget at all? We used to use a Blink for carting the groceries home, but now we use a Micralite Fastfold Superlite, which *is* a one-handed push. But it's pretty pricey if you can't find it on sale. If it's in your budget at all to get a different stroller or something to replace the G-luxe maybe we could brainstorm lightweights with a one-handed push for you.

Alternatively, do you ever wear your DD? If you haven't been doing it all along it might not be a good idea to start at 33 weeks pregnant, but this could be a solution to the problem of needing the extra hand. But as far as the Quad is concerned, if you have been lifting it in and out of the car all along my understanding is that you can probably keep doing that safely unless it feels uncomfortable or hurts in some way (can't remember if you said it did in your original post). I'd check with your OB of course, but usually the rule is that if this is habitual lifting that you've always been doing your body can handle it even late in pregnancy.

Another possible option: Could you lock your Quad up in the garage somehow when you leave for the store (with a bike lock, for example) and then it would be there waiting for you when you got back from the store and you could push the groceries home with that? That way you wouldn't actually have to load it into your car at all.

Finally, maybe you could look into getting one of those grocery cart things that old people use. You usually pull them behind you and they have a bar handle so it should be relatively easy to do while holding your DD's hand. That might be easier than trying to use the stroller for the groceries, but I'm not sure how expensive they are.

Okay, those are all my ideas! Hope something in there helps!

[RunnerDuck]

I just had my 4th kid - I have 3yo twins and a bob dualie and I had no trouble lifting anything into my car this pregnancy. Kids, stroller, pick 'em up, throw them in... stroller was easy, really, because it never yelled at me or told me to put it down because it wanted to get in itself...

I think the more kids you have the stronger you get, though. I remember when my son was a baby I thought my graco quattro was heavy, but I just threw that in the back of my van today with one hand.

[swissair81]

I think the more kids you have the stronger you get, though.

I really think it is highly individual. My last baby was my 4th as well. I could barely lift anything. Each pregnancy is harder than the last.

[liamsmom]

Okay, I think it sounds like the solution here is a different lightweight stroller.

I was wondering about a BJCM. One-hand fold and 16.5 pounds. You can probably lift it into your trunk with one hand. The basket isn't as good as the Quad's, but you can hang bags off the handle. If it's not a stroller you'd want to keep or have the budget for, maybe a friend could loan you one until the end of your pregnancy? Temporarily swap the G-luxe for a BJCM maybe?

A shopping cart sounds good too.

[RunnerDuck]

I really think it is highly individual. My last baby was my 4th as well. I could barely lift anything. Each pregnancy is harder than the last.

My last pregnancy was brutal. I was griping about the pain by 20 weeks. I still managed to get the bob dualie in the car, and walk at the mall... slowly. It's POST pregnancy I am slinging the quattro. Sorry. Each KID you get stronger, not each pregnancy LOL

I wasn't slinging the dualie, but I managed.

[Multimama]

My last pregnancy was brutal. I was griping about the pain by 20 weeks. I still managed to get the bob dualie in the car, and walk at the mall... slowly. It's POST pregnancy I am slinging the quattro. Sorry. Each KID you get stronger, not each pregnancy LOL

I wasn't slinging the dualie, but I managed.

I really don't see what your strength and stroller-lifting abilities have to do with the OP and what she feels comfortable lifting during her pregnancy?? Every woman is different and it's what she feels comfortable with that matters here. She's pregnant, this isn't a hypothetical, so I think we can trust her to make her own call.

OP, I was also thinking that maybe you would be able to push the G-luxe one-handed if you loaded it differently. If you're currently just hanging bags on the handles that probably makes it tippy and hard to steer. If you load up the seat (reclined if you need more space) and put the heaviest items like milk jugs in the basket that should make it easier to maneuver and maybe improve things if none of the other suggestions are an option for you.

[RunnerDuck]

Well she asked if others had trouble. And my answer was, nope. Not a problem.

[jerry_mishkata]

OP, I was also thinking that maybe you would be able to push the G-luxe one-handed if you loaded it differently. If you're currently just hanging bags on the handles that probably makes it tippy and hard to steer. If you load up the seat (reclined if you need more space) and put the heaviest items like milk jugs in the basket that should make it easier to maneuver and maybe improve things if none of the other suggestions are an option for you.

Thank you Multimama for the suggestions and everyone else for your input! I did notice that I got stronger with my DD's birth -- just the constant workouts throughout the day of lifting an increasing weight makes this inevitable. However, when I lift something as heavy as the Quad, at this point, literally, it hurts. I do feel like I might have a premature birth doing that and my mother almost had her second prematurely on a couple of occasions, one of them was lifting something heavy, the other was vacuuming the apartment, the third was my father hitting her (jerk). So I feel like if it was my own mom, I could be like her.

I think I should get a granny cart. I do load the G-luxe as you described -- heaviest stuff (potatoes, apples, etc) goes in the basket. Everything else in the seat.

I am a big time baby wearer but post 5 months pregnant, I couldn't wear my DD in front carry. I had to do a back carry around 7 months and it was REALLY hard, i.e. I got tired after like 1 minute. It is a good point that if I have been lifting it all along, I should have no problem now, but the pain scares me... I have a Dr's appointment today and I will ask.

Oh, and I never thought of locking the Quad in the garage. I will look around in the garage if there is a suitable place to lock it while we are away. I am sure there is, and usually there is space on the same floor of the garage when we come back from shopping (it's a 7 story thing). That would make my life EXTREMELY easy! I always have a bike lock on it in case we go to a park and have to leave it behind. This is a great idea too!

Thanks so much everyone!

I LOVE how the micralites look, but unfortunately, I can't justify spending all that money on a stroller I might not use much after my second is born. My husband already thinks we have too many strollers with the Quad and the G-luxe and it's only 2. But then, we just spent the last 2 weeks in Europe and he was singing praises to the Quad's ability to handle the rough (severe) terrain in there, bumping up/down stairs, its recline, canopy, basket, everything. He was even bragging about it to his friends! I was so proud!