Strollers??
 

I am sure you have all been asked this before, but I am wondering what type of stroller to get for the twins. DH (who is a WAHD, so the parent #1) says he absolutely wants the bucket seats. I was thinking maybe skipping that and just getting convertible car seats and a nice stroller that doesn't have to work with the buckets, but I'm fine with getting them if he feels it will be easier. I have heard that the snap and gos work well, though I haven't tested one out and wonder if they are as sturdy as a full double stroller. I was thinking of maybe starting with that and then once they are here and a little bigger figuring out exactly what type of stroller will work for the longer term.

Part of my concerns were financial, as money is very tight. However, my mother just let me know that though I won't be having a shower, she and my father would like to get us one of the big items that we need. So, now I am considering full travel systems too. If we don't go with the snap and go I would like something that will last until the twins are out of strollers, so we don't have to buy another one.

I know there are a lot of options, side by side vs. front/back, jogging strollers, different brands, etc. and it seems harder to decide what would be best with two on the way instead of just one!

Thank you very much!!

Re: Strollers??
 

We went with convertible car seats, and they are still in them. We wore the babies for the first several months, and bought two double strollers later. We got one umbrella style double stroller and one jogger double.

There were times we "sort of" wished we had the bucket seats. When they're sleeping and you don't really want to wake them up when you get out of the car, it makes you cluck your tongue... but often they stayed asleep anyway. (I guess they were just used to being held so they didn't wake as easily just from Mom and Dad moving them around.)


MOSTLY, though, I think it was much easier to pick up babies and carry them than it would have been to tote two full-sized bucket seats around all the time. That's especially true for when I was by myself. I could have just taken them out of the bucket seats also, I suppose. :) I would put the Moby Wrap on me (I liked that one because it could hold BOTH babies if I needed it to) and then get out one baby to wear; then I'd get out the second baby and usually carry that one or put them in a single stroller... depending on what we were doing. At the grocery store the second baby went in the basket.


I think we all have our preferences though. I know of at least one mom here who has said that when she went to the grocery store she had one basket of babies with seats and one basket of groceries and that totally worked for her.


My main reasons for going with the convertibles were that I didn't want to have to buy two MORE car seats in a year. And I remembered the travel systems from my other 3 kids, and I just hadn't liked those at ALL. They were big and bulky and limited us so much on what we could do. So I already knew I didn't want a big travel system because of my previous experiences with them, but a lot of people DO like them.

In fact, we giggled at ourselves because we'd go places like the doctor's office where there were LOTS of babies, and everyone else had their big bulky car seat buckets and trying to figure out how to put their stroller or seat on the floor, often plus dealing with a toddler, etc, and even though there are SEVEN of us, we tucked nicely into the corner and held our babies. :heart:

As much "more trouble" as it was, I very much suspect it was only "more trouble" because it was two babies, and I suspect that were we having to deal with all the equipment everyone else was we would have been DOUBLE the trouble. Pardon the puns. LOL



So this really worked for us, but I really do think it's a personal thing. And if you have someone who is going to get you a big ticket item it would certainly be worth considering one of the big travel systems that comes with car seats and then later the stroller is usable without the buckets.

We spent $45 on each car seat and bought the strollers second hand at great prices. ($35 on craigslist for the jogger, and $14 at Salvation Army for the umbrella.) And we're still using all four of those items.

Re: Strollers??
 

I think you will find every mom on here has a different answer for what works for them. We went with the travel system kind-of. We got the Graco Duo Glider and the two infant car seats that matched it. We LOVE it ... couldn't be more pleased. The stroller is easy to maneuver. It is very easy to close one-handed, locks itself together automatically and I can pick it up and put it in the trunk with one hand. About the only hard part (for me, DH has no trouble with it) is getting it unlatched. That is definitely a two-handed evolution. I really like being able to just pick up the car seats and lock them in to the stroller. They STILL get put in the stroller that way now when we are out at a store, because like someone else mentioned if they are napping it is just easier to let them nap. It was even more helpful for that when they were firstborn. I don't think I would have gone out nearly as often or made nearly so many stops on 'errand days' if I had to get them each out of their car seats and into a carrier every time. I will say though that when I go grocery shopping with them alone, I wear one and leave the other one in their car seat on the cart. (this is off topic, but can I just say I CANT WAIT until they are sitting up well enough that I can sit them both up in the cart for grocery shopping)
I wanted a stroller that would work when they were babies and could continue to be used as they got older ... and as I said I love my choice ... it works well for us. We do have two inexpensive single jogging strollers that we use when we both take them on walks around the neighborhood, to the beach, etc also. When we go out to crowded places (festivals etc) we take the double stroller, beause it is actually easier to get through places than two jogging strollers.

Re: Strollers??
 

We went with infant seats and not convertible seats since most convertible car seats start at a higher weight. Thankfully we did since both of my little ones were small at birth. They would have been to small to bring home in convertible seats and we would have been told to go buy infant seats.

We bought a double stroller that has one in front of the other. Most strollers say the baby needs to have head control to sit in it. So we went with the stroller that out car seats would snap on to. I like the front and back style because it will aways fit through a door.

Now that my little ones are a little bigger i take my jogging stroller almost everywhere we go.

Although i had to buy two strollers, and will have to buy convertible car seats when they out grow the infant seats, i dont think it would have worked for us any other way.

Re: Strollers??
 

We went with infant seats too. I really wanted them for the cold WI winter. It was much more practical around here with 2 infants to keep them snuggled in those instead of moving them to a stroller or carrier when ti was freezing outside. We bought the Kolcraft Contours Tandem stroller and still use it today. It's amazing! We also had a used Jeep side by side umbrella stroller, but we didn't use that as much.

We would have had an issue with convertible car seats and 2 small babies. My girls were born at 36w5d, but were still very small. I can't imagine that the convertible seat would have worked for them at that size. I look at the ones we have now and wonder how I would have gotten the straps in the right position to safely support them even when they were big enough to fit, which they weren't at first.

Re: Strollers??
 

While my boys were in strollers, I had a number of different ones. My favorite was the Graco Duoglider. While it was a bit bigger than a few of the other ones we had, it was sturdy, worked with the infant seats, and was easy to push. I didn't care for the side-by-sides b/c they were harder to maneuver, especially when my boys got a little bigger.

Re: Strollers??
 

well, my twins aren't born yet- so idk how my 'system' will work. but here was my thought process. we bought a matching infant carrier to the seat we used for DS. We also bought a snap n go. The reason we went with a snap n go is that for the brand of carseats we have (chico) there isn't as many strollers that accept our seats and most were fairly expensive ($400 - $600). We decided to go with the snap n go for the first summer and then we can have a better idea of what we want (side-by-side vs front/back) and we can literally buy ANY stroller out there. (keep in mind that infants are supposed to be almost laying flat in strollers b/c of poor neck control - and some strollers don't fully recline/recline enough for a small baby)

so that's just my thoughts on the subject and things we used to make our decisions - now i might change my mind after i'm using it, but this is what we're going with for now ;)

Re: Strollers??
 

My twins were born at 37w2d and were 6lbs3oz and 4lbs10oz. The convertibles worked just fine for them.

Re: Strollers??
 

I believe the Kolcraft fits just about every infant seat out there.

Re: Strollers??
 

Thanks ladies - this is all very helpful (and confusing too since there is no one answer!!)

I hadn't actually looked into the convertible car seats, but good to know they don't all work for little babies.

Sigh... so many decisions to make for these twins.:)

Re: Strollers??
 

Infant cart seats. You can carry 2 at a time. It balances you to carry 2 LOL!
Also you can set one seat on the ground while you open the car door and put the other baby in the car. Much more difficult to open car doors if you hands are full of babies.

Double Snap n Go. I was thinking about my fav strollers last night and this is one of them. So light and so easy to snap the car seats in. I had the Graco Duo Glider first and sold it. It was too bulky with the car seats and even at 3 mths my babies looked so uncomfortable in the regular seats.

A nice side by side. I had a used Mountain Buggy ($85 steal) jogger and a Baby Planet umbrella type. I like both of them but the Mountain Buggy was my favorite stroller of all time. Light enough, easy to open and close, steered like a dream.

Re: Strollers??
 

Hey girly :) So, as you know being in the same DDC, I'm expecting twins as well! We purchased the Baby Jogger City Select! I tried it with my daughter and a friends daughter together, and it does wonders! It can hold car seats from chicco, britax, maxi cosi, etc. And also comes with seats that you can snap on (regular stroller seats) and off.

LOVE IT