I know it is ONLY going to get WORSE when she gets here... but I am REALLY struggling with all the decisions that need to be made lately. Course I also got this way when we built the house... "I don't CARE what the balusters look like just PUT SOMETHING UP so I can MOVE IN..."
We have been BLESSED upon BLESSED to be given a bunch of hand-me-down gear that has been used by Heidi's little man for just a few short months. So really, the only big ticket items we NEED to register for are; a car seat/stroller and a pack'n play. I am a lucky lucky girl. EVERYONE has an opinion... loved something, hated something, used it for a month and it collected dust something.
I am a minimalist. I come from a long line of "chuckers". CountryMum's Mother was a thrower-awayer and it just gets passed down generation to generation. I really don't WANT a stroller that I'll never use, I really don't WANT a car seat that we'll hate... but the trouble is... how do you know?
Sure I'm about safety...I can look at Con$umer Report$ but I also want it to be FUNCTIONAL by REAL LIFE MOMS out there. I want it to fit in the back of my teeenie backseat and I want to be able to travel somewhere as a FAMILY and fit all our "GEAR" into the Scooby. Am I dreaming? Should we just invest now in a U-HAUL?
Help a girl out. My thoughts are... Minnie Mouse will be born in the winter... I can get a gently used infant car seat for $25 from a very good friend of J.T.'s (so I know where it is coming from) and it could fit into this stroller if we decide to go this route.... 
I don't foresee us using one of those big gomey stroller systems... I'd like to register for a car seat she'll be in for longer than a year... I'd like a jogging stroller (NOT BECAUSE I JOG, ICK, NO.) but for the front swivel wheel and the rough terrain that is my driveway. I also want her to fit in it and be safe in it when she is about 4-5 months old... I don't want to have to wait until she's over a year.... Plastic wheels just don't make sense to me...
I don't foresee us using one of those big gomey stroller systems... I'd like to register for a car seat she'll be in for longer than a year... I'd like a jogging stroller (NOT BECAUSE I JOG, ICK, NO.) but for the front swivel wheel and the rough terrain that is my driveway. I also want her to fit in it and be safe in it when she is about 4-5 months old... I don't want to have to wait until she's over a year.... Plastic wheels just don't make sense to me...I intend to wear my baby for much of the time provided I can find a sling that I like and she likes to be cuddled (I am being honest here, she could take after her Mama and HATE to be snuggled up close but that's just one of those other traits that I'm praying she DOESN'T get from me and she's more like her Daddy :) and for the times that I'm not wearing her when the weather starts getting nicer I want to be able to put her in a jogging stroller that is safe for her, that is comfortable and that we can take down the driveway or to the school to walk around while Husband is at Track Practice.
The other trouble with this is... SELECTION. Sure there are a TON of convertible car seats out there and a MILLION joggers but I am finding them on-line and NOT at the two places we are going to do our primary registering. Do we just suck it up when we find something that LOOKS like it might work for us and buy it on-line? What if we get it and it is the SIZE of the Scooby and we find that pushing it down the driveway is about as easy as dragging Reebsie out of the water at the lake?
I'm thinking about the Britax Boulevard or Marathon convertible car seat. 
The pluses are that it COULD fit Minnie Mouse from the day she pops out until the day she goes to KINDERGARTEN but...will it fit in my car? Michelle SWEARS by these seats. They are SUPER easy to clean and really comfy for the kiddies. But... how big IS IT....And when she's ready for a booster will she still want to be getting 5 point HITCHED into her seat? Why can I hear it now? "Moooommmmmmm I'm NOT a baby anymore!?!?!?"
The pluses are that it COULD fit Minnie Mouse from the day she pops out until the day she goes to KINDERGARTEN but...will it fit in my car? Michelle SWEARS by these seats. They are SUPER easy to clean and really comfy for the kiddies. But... how big IS IT....And when she's ready for a booster will she still want to be getting 5 point HITCHED into her seat? Why can I hear it now? "Moooommmmmmm I'm NOT a baby anymore!?!?!?"Or do I just do the $25 infant seat until she is one and we can turn her around and pop her in my family's favorite (on both sides...both SIL L, pretty sure SIL Bets and SIL J) The Graco Nautilus? Converts to a booster seat, in fact Sky and Chloe are still in them... and if purchased on Amazon they don't break the bank like a Britax?
The Jeep stroller looks cute, JJ & J love theirs and so does CJ but the reviews on the latest model are that it is big, doesn't fold up well and kinda heavy... This stroller I think would be my DREAM?? (BUT AGAIN who knows when you can't try them out anywhere??) It does come with a car seat adaptor that you can purchase for $50 and the Graco Snugride would snap into it if we needed to until she got a big bigger... The BOB Revolution...of course the Mesa Orange IS the cutest color :) hee hee hee... 
I honestly just have NO IDEA... I want to go with LESS is best... whether it be gear, or $$ spent or size and weight... but that might not be the case with baby gear... I have NO idea...
*all pics courtesy of amazon.com or babiesrus.com
3 comments:
I've brought my mya wrap to church for you to try twice. But I forgot about it both times. I'll have it with me again this Sunday.
I've got to say that a car seat that clicks in and out of the car is a must! Especially in the winter. It's very hard to successfully get a baby out of a car seat and into the house without waking them up, ad to that freezing cold temperatures and it's nearly impossible. But when you have a seat with one of those blanket things that attach to the it, baby doesn't get jostled, or feel the cold and you're in business! Picture this, you've just gotten back from the grocery store (there is another benefit of the carrier car seats it makes life easy shopping) you get home and your precious peanut is asleep. Now if she stays asleep you can unload the groceries, go pee, make a phone call you've been putting off..... , but if she wakes up forget it. No the baby won't fit in it for a long time but it's well worth it.
We have a jogging stroller from Lil'Bit and loved it. But I do wish I could click Baby Bits car seat into it. I'd look for one with wheels that are inflatable and a removable front wheel to conserve space when packing. The BOB Revolution looks nice, our stroller has the big bicycle wheels and does great absorbing shock, I just don't know if the small wheels would work as well. But it might fold up smaller without removing the front wheel, so that would be a plus.
Oh Gee you really got me going. Hope this helps.
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We can "test fit" our Jeep stroller into your scooby if you want? :) Maybe the new ones aren't exactly the same, but ours is pretty big, and compared to some I'm sure you could say it dosn't fold up as tight - but it's a JEEP...it has plenty of storage space and it rocks on any terrain.
Ok.. deep breath.. let it out... in.... out. I am stressed from reading this. ;) (1)I like the idea of testing the jeep stroller to see if it will fit. (2) if you register for a car seat and you hate it or it feels too big for the car: Return It. :) I am all about "less is more" when it comes to baby gear. My kids hated the swing and excersaucer. They were perfectly content rolling around on the floor. They didn't need a basinette.. they slept in their cribs. We didn't have video monitors and they both survived infancy. We didn't have baby wipe warmers and they don't seem to have emotional (nor physical) scars from cold ones. There is SOOOO much junk on the market and it really is just to make money. However. When it comes to the safety aspect, I do not buy the "less is more" theory. Pick the couple you like and research them. Go with the highest safety rating regardless of cost (you might even find the cheap one is safer). My thought: I would never forgive myself if my child wasn't safe only because I wanted to save a buck. Don't stress over the rest of it. You choice in baby gear will not make or break you as a parent. You.will.do.great. <3
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