mommyoftwo
09-19-2012, 12:56 AM
I realized that's a very broad question so let me narrow it down a bit. With Amelia we had an inexpensive safety first maybe? stroller that was fairly lightweight and allowed us to attach her car seat. It was actually a great little stroller for the price and served us well. We still have it somewhere. With Linnea we hardly used a stroller at all for the first couple years because she was always being worn by one of us. When she got big enough that she wanted to ride in a stroller we mostly used a duoglide which I hated but was all we could afford. I never spent a lot of time researching strollers with them because we couldn't afford them anyway.
Fast forward 7 years and my husband is done with residency and a practicing general surgeon and we are pregnant with twins. I had assumed that I would mostly be babywearing and stroller wouldn't be a big issue but obviously having twins makes it a whole different ball game. I can afford to get what I want but would rather not go over $1,000 which seems like an insane amount to spend on a stroller or two but the little research I've done makes me realize that it's pretty easy to spend that much money. We live in a small town and our neighborhood still has all of it's cobblestone streets. We will need something for indoors like the mall and doctor's appts but I'm expecting that much more of the use will be outside.
In theory at least I like the idea of bassinets, a boot to cover them in cool/cold weather, and the flexibility to have them face towards us or away. I have very petite kids so weight limits will not be a factor at all. I am assuming that I will prefer a side by side at least for when they are little. I like the idea of one stroller meeting all of our needs as they grow if basically being the one stroller that we get until we are done but I realize that there really isn't such a thing as one stroller for all needs. I don't particularly want to lug a huge heavy stroller everywhere we go so getting a smaller lightweight umbrella style stroller makes sense for when they are a little older and don't need a full recline.
Finally, we will have 4 kids so anything we get must be able to fit in the back of our town & country van without the third seat being down. I haven't picked out car seats for sure but we know that babies will be preemies (we are hoping to make it to 34 weeks but I'm having all kinds of complications) and it seems like most people like the keyfit 30 best for preemies. From the little reading I've done, I've discovered that many strollers are not compatible with those seats. While trying to read threads and get up to speed about all of this, I came across the valco baby spark duo which looks pretty amazing and according to their facebook page will be compatible with the keyfit when they release the car seat adaptors later this year. There are other possible car seats and the stroller will be used long after they are out of their infant seats but if I can find a great stroller that works with the keyfit that would be my ideal solution.
Oh, one more thing. I still plan on babywearing when I can and obviously a single stroller is much easier to push than a double so should I be looking for a single stroller as well for when I wear one baby? I'll have to up my budget I would assume if I do that but it's more important for me to figure out what will work best to help me deal with both babies by myself while out and about. If you think that would be a wise idea, let me know what my best options are since I haven't looked at single strollers at all in years.
I was really trying hard to sort out all of the options and keep all of the abbreviations straight in my head so I could come with a bunch of intelligent informed questions, but I'm finding it a bit overwhelming to try to figure all of this out at once. So I'm going to really on all you stroller experts to help me sort out my options. It's been a long day and I'm exhausted so I apologize if this is rambly and doesn't make sense. Feel free to ask for clarification.
Fast forward 7 years and my husband is done with residency and a practicing general surgeon and we are pregnant with twins. I had assumed that I would mostly be babywearing and stroller wouldn't be a big issue but obviously having twins makes it a whole different ball game. I can afford to get what I want but would rather not go over $1,000 which seems like an insane amount to spend on a stroller or two but the little research I've done makes me realize that it's pretty easy to spend that much money. We live in a small town and our neighborhood still has all of it's cobblestone streets. We will need something for indoors like the mall and doctor's appts but I'm expecting that much more of the use will be outside.
In theory at least I like the idea of bassinets, a boot to cover them in cool/cold weather, and the flexibility to have them face towards us or away. I have very petite kids so weight limits will not be a factor at all. I am assuming that I will prefer a side by side at least for when they are little. I like the idea of one stroller meeting all of our needs as they grow if basically being the one stroller that we get until we are done but I realize that there really isn't such a thing as one stroller for all needs. I don't particularly want to lug a huge heavy stroller everywhere we go so getting a smaller lightweight umbrella style stroller makes sense for when they are a little older and don't need a full recline.
Finally, we will have 4 kids so anything we get must be able to fit in the back of our town & country van without the third seat being down. I haven't picked out car seats for sure but we know that babies will be preemies (we are hoping to make it to 34 weeks but I'm having all kinds of complications) and it seems like most people like the keyfit 30 best for preemies. From the little reading I've done, I've discovered that many strollers are not compatible with those seats. While trying to read threads and get up to speed about all of this, I came across the valco baby spark duo which looks pretty amazing and according to their facebook page will be compatible with the keyfit when they release the car seat adaptors later this year. There are other possible car seats and the stroller will be used long after they are out of their infant seats but if I can find a great stroller that works with the keyfit that would be my ideal solution.
Oh, one more thing. I still plan on babywearing when I can and obviously a single stroller is much easier to push than a double so should I be looking for a single stroller as well for when I wear one baby? I'll have to up my budget I would assume if I do that but it's more important for me to figure out what will work best to help me deal with both babies by myself while out and about. If you think that would be a wise idea, let me know what my best options are since I haven't looked at single strollers at all in years.
I was really trying hard to sort out all of the options and keep all of the abbreviations straight in my head so I could come with a bunch of intelligent informed questions, but I'm finding it a bit overwhelming to try to figure all of this out at once. So I'm going to really on all you stroller experts to help me sort out my options. It's been a long day and I'm exhausted so I apologize if this is rambly and doesn't make sense. Feel free to ask for clarification.