Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Taking Nate Out in a Stroller

Over Labor Day Weekend we took Nate out on a couple errands as well as took him for a couple walks around the neighborhood. We bought a stroller frame that would work with his infant car seat to make the whole process as easy as possible.

When looking for strollers most manufacturers offer these large travel systems. I can see where they are good for some people. They can be large enough to carry everything, except for maybe the kitchen sink. They also tend to be rather heavy, harder to get in and out of car, and not as easy to push around. While they do fold up, we really needed something that would fold up as small as possible. Without getting into the ones that cost a mint the lightest travel system stroller we found was over 17 lbs (without car seat) and most were heavier. My wife is definitely keeping her current car (a Mini). She loves the vehicle and while a second kid may push us to a new vehicle (she's already talking about a Mini Clubman) right now she is not giving up her Mini. When looking for car seats and strollers we had to make sure that they would fit in the Mini. Almost all the car seats will fit in the Mini, but we found that due to some configuration issues it is best to put the seats on one side or the other vs. in the middle.

Sherri's mini 
Sherri's Mini

Looking at some of these stroller travel systems we figured that they just would not fit into the Mini very well. They were designed for the Minivan or SUV driving crowd. We found a great stroller frame from Baby Trend. The Snap N'Go stroller fits our Graco Snugride infant car seat well. The car seat snaps right in quickly and easily without any modifications. The stroller rolls great, really does open and close with just one hand (if needed). It is also light enough to easily get in and out of car, even with one arm. The Snap N' Go is a maximum of 12 lbs without the car seat. The Snap N' Go will also work with almost all infant car seats.

And the big bonus is we can fit it into the Mini. No it is not small enough to fit in the Mini's trunk, but we can put it into car in any of three ways. It can go in front seat, back seat, or most commonly we fold down half of back seat and put in in through the rear hatch.

Once Nate moves beyond the infant car seat, we'll go with some form of lightweight umbrella stroller and put the frame away for a while. Yes, with a travel system you do have the option of using the stroller without car seat which can extend its life, but we figured that the umbrella style will be best fit our needs best as Nate grows. I'm doing my research now and will probably purchase one later this year.

Nate in Stroller
Nate out for a walk

Snap N'Go stroller
Snap N' Go folded up

1 comment:

  1. We just got a Clubman S. We have a 3yo and 1yo in Britax Blvd carseats in the back. I have a Bugaboo Chameleon that fits in the boot if I pop the wheels off, our Quinny Zapp is a snap and allows for a lot of room. We also manage to get our double jogger in with a little wrestling.

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