Beep! Beep! Man coming through with (soon to be) two babies!!
Oh yes, we're in the, 'how the hell are we going to get around with two littles?' conundrum.
Finding a double pram that fits all our needs is proving tricky. We want slim line, but we want light. We want it to be easy to collapse and car boot friendly, but preferably collapse in one piece. The side by side doubles are just proving too wide for everyday life but at the same time I'm not the biggest fan of the doubles where the baby is stashed underneath like hidden cargo ;)
So we've decided to wait till baby bump is here before we make any big purchases. In the meantime, I always knew I would want a buggy board for Caleb. Rather than wait till the baby was here (we didn't want it to appear like he was getting his eviction notice from his own pram ;) ) we thought we would get it now so Caleb could get used to it.
After a tricky start, where upon he thought it was a seat :/. Nice try, Caleb, if only it was that simple! He is loving it. We road tested it in town to see how easy it was to get around and manoeuvre, and I'm happy to report it was a complete success. Caleb adored the perspective of the world he got from standing tall, it's actually the most content I've seen him in town in a long time. He's become pretty restless in his pram of late (hence us not being so keen to make a big purchase for a double just yet) and prefers to walk mostly. With the buggy board we get the best of both worlds as once he's tired or if it's too crowded he can just jump on.
Since the buggy board has been such a success, I'm thinking the way forward for us may be a sling for baby bump. That way when Caleb is tired or needs to take a nap he can hop into the pram and baby bump can go into the sling. Sounds simple. Right?!
Well, if there's anything I've learnt from this mama gig....only time will tell ;)
*this is not a sponsored post.
I had a double buggy recently with an 18 month gap, but I've a huge porch, so it lived there and I used it everyday. When my no.2 and no.3 were little I couldn't afford a double pushchair, so I actually imported a buggy board from Switzerland as you couldn't get them over here. There was exactly 2 years between the 2 children.
ReplyDeleteI put the board onto my Silver Cross 3 in 1 Pram/Car seat/pushchair thingie and for the first 9 months or so had that in the pram formation for my daughter and my son on the board. When he was tired he'd lean forward over the pram and sleep! He never ever fell off, and when he got a little better at walking I'd just unclip it and put it in the shopping basket until he was tired again. It couldn't have worked better, it really couldn't, and was about £300 cheaper than investing in a double buggy :)
Ahh that is so cute that your son would fall asleep on it, and pretty handy too!! So good to hear other mum's experiences with two in tow. Thanks for taking the time to share your mama wisdom x
DeleteI bought the Phil & Teds buggy with my little ones, and I still use it as a single pram for my third baby now! That pram was a life saver, I don't think I would have gone out anywhere with two little ones if I didn't have that! But they were very close in age (15 months) so we needed a proper pram really. If you can get a way with the board, I definitely do that instead. But we went out on big days out and we just needed a proper pram for them both to be in and for us to get about quickly. You also have the option of using it as a single pram in the future. The back has to be detached, but it is so easy and takes seconds. It's very good for newborns too. I thought it was a bit heavy to start with, but I was surprised how quickly I got used to that (and I am a bit of a weakling), ha ha. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the advice, Sarah! The Phil & Ted seems like the smartest double pram purchase to me, we are definitely looking into it x
DeleteI wish John had taken to the buggy board as I miss using my Bugaboo Bee on a daily basis. He just couldn't get the hang of it and I couldn't be sure he wouldn't launch himself onto me (or the road!) without warning.
ReplyDeleteI did get away with slinging it for a while but David was bigger & grew quicker than we'd anticipated and my back just couldn't hack it! So a double buggy it was. I managed to get myself a Phil & Teds tandem for nothing from our local Facebook selling page and I've done a bit of TLC and DIY to it (blog post on that coming soon ;)) and it's now our saviour! I do sometimes feel sorry for David tucked away underneath but it means we get out the house and through shop doors!
You'll work out what works best for you though. As soon as the cabin fever with a toddler kicks in, you'll go out by any means possible!
What a fantastic find for free, go mama!!! Will definitely want to check out that blog post. I've been scouring gumtree for one, just need to make the final decision if we'll absolutely need it, it might be that we wait till the baby is here. Thanks so much for sharing your advice, Amy. It really is so helpful x
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