Metro with baby tips

[Anonymous]

I’m going to start commuting on Metro with my 4 month old. His daycare is next to my work and I live and work very close to the metro stops. Any tips for a metro commute? I was thinking that I would wear him in a carrier because both stops have stairs. However, the carrier seems bound to wrinkle my professional clothes and spit up/slobber wouldn’t be great! So, metro moms, are you packing clothes to change into at work? Using a stroller and risking that the elevators are broken?

Any other tips? It’s a 30 minute metro ride. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

It's hard, but doable. Wear the baby and definitely plan to change your shirt when you get to work (messy with the baby but also sweaty, etc). Pare down what you're carrying every day. Can you leave items at work or daycare? Have a lightweight stroller at home for some days when you can't wear the baby for whatever reason. Have some snacks ready (once a little older) for the inevitable fussiness.

[Anonymous]

Do you still have a proper office with storage? I would buy 2-3 plain tops and cardigans/one extra blazer from a place like J. Crew Factory and take them in on a weekend. Keep them neatly stacked in a drawer in case something goes wrong. You’ll also need to plan for extra daycare outfits, end of week daycare laundry, and bottles/snacks/lunches if they don’t provide food once baby is bigger. At some point it will be too much to carry and you’ll need to plan a weekly drop or something.

[Anonymous]

I did this for several years. Definitely wear the baby. I found it helpful to also switch to a backpack style work bag ( baby carrier on first then backpack). Usually wore a tank top with work shirt in bag or fully unbuttoned until dropped the baby off. If you wear suit jackets - leave a few jackets and an extra shirt at work. I never ended up having to use the extra shirt, but if you need it you’ll be glad it’s there. The only reason I ended definitely needing to carry my work shirt in my bag was due to DC heat - baby carrying can get very hot on muggy dc days.

[Anonymous]

Have two or three t-shirts that you wear as "commuting shirts" and change into your work top when you get to work.

[Anonymous]

This works best if you can drive in 1x a week or month and stock your office with supplies and keep yourself light on your feet most days. I always did the stroller v carrying but my stops all had elevators. I also was comfortable using the escalator with my stroller if the elevators were down, despite other peoples death stares for blocking them from walking on the left

[Anonymous]

Thanks all! Luckily, I do have lots of space to store extra clothes and supplies. I appreciate the confirmation that I just need to change my shirt when I get to work.

[Anonymous]

I never liked wearing my baby. I took a small stroller on nearly every weekday for 4 yrs. The key was to get in the first car (where the driver is) because that’s usually the emptiest car, even in rush hour.

[Anonymous]

Use a stroller, wearing will be disgusting.

[Anonymous]

100% use carrier. Metro is NOT stroller friendly at all and the elevators often don't work or are creaky and smell like urine. Wear casual clothes for commuting.

[Anonymous]

I bought a Babyzen Yoyo. I can fold it up and carry it and the baby on the escalator if the elevators are out. Or, when I got more comfortable (and my kid was older than yours), I would use the stroller on the escalator. It's so narrow that people can still walk by on the left. I was more comfortable going up than down. But I got the hang of going down too. And I usually did it only for the shorter escalators between metro levels (like transferring from the green to blue or whatever). Much quicker.

For a baby that little though, I'd probably wear a lot of polyester tops that don't wrinkle and just carry the baby in the carrier for now.

[Anonymous]

I'd definitely plan on doing carrier most of the time and stroller sometimes. The Yoyo is a great stroller for this, I also recommend the compact Colugo or the Gbit. Just something that folds down tiny and is really lightweight.

I think you will want the stroller any day you have to carry any extra stuff into work or daycare. Like if you have to bring your breast pump home some days, or if you have to bring a week's worth of outfit changes and diapers on Monday. Or if you have a day where you need to be dressed up a bit more and it's not feasible to change. It's just nice to be able to throw stuff under the stroller while you are walking, and to have somewhere to put the baby down.

But otherwise, I'd definitely use the carrier and a backpack work bag. That's primarily what I did for the first year and you get use to the awkwardness of it and learn little tricks for figuring it out. I'd literally just keep a stack of professional-looking tees at work to change into. If you are breastfeeding, you will be grateful for this anyway because you might have occasional leaks, and also breastfeeding can impact your hormones and cause stuff like random sweating once you start weaning.

Also, this isn't really a practical tip, but I liked that time I spent with my DD in the carrier during commutes. It was hard to be apart from her at that age and it made me feel better to get to be very close to her during that time. It turned the commute into quality bonding time, whereas days she was in the stroller were less so.

[Anonymous]

Except for when she first started, I never drove supplies in. I commuted (7 stops, no transfer) to my downtown office from age 5 months to age almost 3 years (when we moved). I would wear her on an icy day or if I knew elevators were out, but otherwise I used a narrow stroller (and agree with others re: taking the stroller on the escalator). I bought diapers and wipes from the CVS near my office. For her change of clothes I’d just bring some in a diaper bag / backpack. I kept a shirt in my office (also in case I leaked when I was nursing) but didn’t typically change at work.