Stroller and car seat recs for row house life
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Anonymous
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Winter baby coming. I've been reading about strollers and car seats and different scenarios, but now that the time is nigh to make a decision, I'm more overwhelmed with the options than ever, versus ready to make a choice. Would love to hear from experienced moms who may have similar setup, to help narrow down.
Housing setup: – Two-level in a rowhouse with average size stoop, about 10 steps. – There isn't space to park a stroller at street level, but we could stash it right outside the door if we carried it up the stoop (weather permitting). That said, I am completely puzzled seeing strollers parked outside row houses like this. Do they not get stolen? That would really suck, and they're not cheap. – Baby's sleeping space will be on upper level. So at some point, if we're not just hanging in the living room, we'd need to carry baby up the front stoop, then up one full flight of stairs. Gear can stay downstairs. Activity expectations: – We love taking long walks around the neighborhood, a lot. As much as we are able, would like to continue that once baby comes. – Have one car and anticipate using it for up to 50% of our outings. We're in the city but not super close to metro, and expect to drive when leaving the neighborhood — e.g. visiting family in other parts of the DMV, doctor's appointments, maybe occasional grocery store if planning a particular large stock-up I don't want to get back on foot. Other factors at play: – FTM. Hoping for a second at some point, but not planning for two under two (life happens, I know...). Probably want to try again after first one is 1.5-2. – I'd love to wear baby for shorter walks and errands. Really hoping to find a carrier situation that makes all parties happy. I've been warned about bulky car seats and to go for something lighter/manageable (as in, heavier doesn't mean safer). I've mostly been trying to narrow down strollers then look at car seats that work with it, but maybe should have been doing 50/50 on my reading this whole time. Am also kinda stuck envisioning our setup for the first few months vs later on. And if people get multiples of these things to fit different activities as different ages. Sounds like a lot of $$$$, so fingers crossed we don't see buyer's remorse. |
Anonymous
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Agree would not leave the stroller outside. It’ll be gone. I’ve had old sneakers stolen. A stroller doesn’t stand a chance!
I may be in the minority, but wouldn’t agonize over the fold. We never fold and put away our stroller because it’s used constantly. It’s so annoying to look at, but I also thought I wouldn’t be a person with toys all over my house and yet here I am. We have both the uppababy vista and the bugaboo donkey. As a single I prefer the vista by a lot. As a double, the donkey, but you may not want something that wide if you’re staying in the city. The bassinet and the car seat that go with the vista are super easy. The car seat isn’t light, but it snaps right in. If you figure out how to avoid buying something new for every age, let us know 
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Anonymous
| Also - in the city you really do want a nice stroller. Having used cheaper rental strollers, they are terrible on most terrain. The vista is great on city sidewalks. |
Anonymous
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Some of this I can’t help you with (no car) but I have a few nuggets of wisdom that may help.
1) Don’t worry so much about the second kid thing right now. Not only is it impossible to see around corners (who knows how far apart the kids end up or how your life changes in that window. There was literally a global pandemic between the birth of my two kids.) You just never know. Plus, what I realized shortly after #2 came along is that if you walk a lot, in addition to a double stroller, you also need TWO strollers! Otherwise, what happens when one of you takes kid #1 to the park and the other takes kid #2 to the store? So you can cross the double stroller bridge if and when you get there, and you’ll need to buy a second stroller anyway! 2) It’s surprisingly easy to pull a stroller up and down row house steps. Whether you’re going up or down, point the handle bar up the steps and make the stroller do a wheelie. Bump bump bump. We’ve got probably 15 steps and I do this all the time, with both my uppababy vista and my city mini (though if I’m using the uppababy as a double, I make the toddler get up and do the steps himself). I even did this throughout my second pregnancy, with the 18 month old in the city mini. No problem. 3) While I wouldn’t store my stroller outside, what you can do (especially when they’re tiny) is take the stroller down the steps empty, leave the stroller at the bottom of the steps for a minute, and go back in and get the baby. We did this until the baby was about 5-6 months old because the “bump bump” seemed like too much for a tiny baby. 4) As far as snapping the car seat into the stroller - you can buy an adapter such that most infant car seats can snap into most strollers. 5) I strongly recommend the city mini. Great stroller, easy to bump bump, easy fold, pretty lightweight, not too pricey, rolls and handles great. Uppababy Vista can’t be beat as a double but for a single, save yourself big $$ and get the city mini. 6) Go to BuyBuyBaby once you’re down to a few options and push them around. They’re SUPER helpful, and it’s important to feel how it rides. You can try on baby carriers too. |
Anonymous
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We stored the stroller in the trunk of the car parked in front of the house so bringing it upstairs never mattered much.
For the newborn phase we had one with an attachable bassinet. Snap bassinet out with baby in it, put base in trunk, carry baby inside in bassinet. Same with car seat. For the older baby phase we had a playpen right next to the door where we would put baby and eventually toddler while getting the stroller out of the car or putting it away. We bought the Nuna Mixx. I loved the idea of a simpler compact stroller like the Yoyo but we just needed more stroller for our heavy walking lives. The suspension on this one was amazing and let us do a lot of stroller naps. The bassinet also has a stand so we used it for downstairs naps. Agree don’t worry about a second yet. If you keep this stroller in good shape you can always sell it to upgrade later. |
Anonymous
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I'll also give a plug for the Uppababy Vista. We live in a row house in Old Town, Alexandria, and we use this stroller every single day. Handles well on uneven sidewalks (including bricks) and has lots of space underneath for carrying groceries or whatever. It feels very study; I never worry about it tipping over. Love the bassinet feature for the newborns. We got the bassinet stand, too, it has proven to be a really useful to have it as an additional safe sleep space on the ground floor. Also makes it easy to transition the baby from stroller to bed or vice versa, because you don't want to wake a sleeping baby! We keep the stroller folded at home and the bassinet in the stand. A bonus is that it converts to a double stroller later if you need it. Downsides are that it is kind of heavy (not sure if you want to haul it up and down those stairs) and expensive. However, I feel like we've gotten our money's worth given how often we use it.
As for car seat, we got the Chicco Key Fit 35 based on the excellent safety ratings. It's also less expensive than some other models. We got the converter so it can attach to the stroller, although truthfully we don't use that feature too often. It is on the heavier side, but that hasn't been as big of a deal as I expected. I also recommend going to Buy Buy Baby and trying out the different models that they have. |
Anonymous
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Row house owner here. I have the Mountain Buggy Nano stroller and it has lasted years. It's not fancy, but it is compact -- folds up into an overhead bin for flights, and does fine on narrow city streets. Best for 6+ months when they can sit without a carseat, but works with a carseat strapped in as well.
For a newborn I liked soft carriers like the Infantino Together. And for an older baby, the Lillebaby structured carrier. |
Anonymous
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My preference is one of the nicer travel strollers that allows you to attach the carseat. We collapsed our stroller when we brought inside generally. I liked having it out of the way in our narrow row house. We also stored it in our car often if we didn't want to bring it inside, like another PP. Point is, we were opening and collapsing our stroller a lot, so I liked having a compact stroller that was easy to lift and carry, and had a fairly easy one-handed fold.
I think the two best options for these features are the Babyzen yoyo or the Babyjogger Citi Tour 2. Both have a one handed trip-fold design, are very lightweight, will allow you to attach a car seat, and are comfortable for toddlers and can be used until 4 years old if you wish. The Citi Tour costs about half as much. The Yoyo is a cooler looking stroller. Priorities vary. I also really love the Colugo compact stroller but am unsure if you can put a car seat in it. I think for some people this might not matter as much, but given how much you intend to drive, I think you'll want it. It's just really nice if you are heading somewhere else in the car and the baby falls asleep, and you want to put them in the stroller. It also enables you to take the baby out in the stroller before they can sit up safely in the stroller itself, since you can't just put an infant right in a stroller. You can also get a bassinet attachment for this (I know the yoyo has one, again $$$, but not sure about the tour or the colugo). We didn't do this because turned out the baby and I really loved the carrier so unless the baby had fallen asleep in the car, my preference was to just do the carrier with no stroller at all. I have never quite understood how so many people manage the full size strollers even though I see them around the neighborhood all the time. They look luxurious and I can see the undersea storage being nice, but when I think of how often we were carrying the stroller up the porch stairs, taking it in and out of the car trunk, pushing it down narrow side walks or navigating it in small city shops, it just seems like a hassle to me. But I am also someone who prefers compact things in general -- I prefer a compact car in the city, I like a smaller house, etc. I like feeling less encumbered in general. For car seat we did a maxi cosi that I liked but am not sure they make anymore. It was lightweight and that was helpful when we had to carry the car seat inside and up the stairs. The important thing is making sure it works with your stroller adapter (most adapters are universal now but when I had my baby this was not true so just double check). Good luck! |
Anonymous
| Big fan of the BabyZen Yo-yo, and agree it’s best for 6 months and up. I liked the K’Taan wrap for newborns and the Ergo after 4 months. It was easy enough for me to put the baby in a carrier or to carry the car seat up and down and keep the stroller in the trunk of the car for when we needed it. |
Anonymous
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I love my Uppababy Vista, using the bassinet for tiny infants. I would never snap a carseat into a stroller, nor would I use a carseat outside the car. Like you,mI prefer to wear my babies as often as possible, and to use the bassinet or stroller seat whenever I cannot baby wear.
Because you have a car, you could just start with a convertible carseat that stays in your car. There are plenty of convertible seats that fit newborns well. |
Anonymous
| We have a small row house and went with the joolz aer stroller (similar to yo-yo, but sturdier). We got the bassinet so used it from birth. It’s super light and easy to fold and doesn’t take up much space, which is great in our row house because we have very little space. We always fold it down because it’s easy. I’m not so sure on car seat. All infant seats are about the same weight and after a bit of time it’s the baby that will weight make it heavy. You can get adapters for most car seats for most strollers. We attached a Clek liing to the aer. |
Anonymous
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I stopped carrying a car seat around really early. Even with a light one I just didn’t like it and didn’t like my baby sitting in it more than the car. We switched from the infant bucket seat to a heavy convertible car seat (that stayed in the car) early on. I wouldn’t worry about that car seat/stroller system. My system with three babies has been carry in a wrap until they are big enough to go in a stroller (I put them in earlier than the recommended age I think). And on carriers, absolutely invest in a good one for city living. You do need something (a wrap style) for the first few months for the best comfort. Then a more structured carrier- there are tons of great ones but Tula is one of the best well known big brands. Babies are actually more content and comfortable being carried facing in- there is no need to face them outwards and they will be content longer if you only face in. Read up about the ergonomics of baby wearing, if you do it well with a good fitting carrier you can keep the option of carrying them for years which makes getting around in busy areas so easy!
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Anonymous
I'm in the burbs so maybe different but my kid is 7 weeks and we've never put the carseat in the stroller yet, we've just used the bassinet attachment so far and may even return the carseat adapter. By the time kid has outgrown the bassinet they may be big enough for stroller as is. |
Anonymous
Off topic but I find it so strange when people mostly put their babies in carriers facing out. Agree babies prefer facing in both because it’s more comfortable for them and because it’s more value for a little baby to see your face and be close to your body than to be able to look around. But also: it’s more comfortable for the adult! Especially if the baby falls asleep which mine did all the time. Why would you want a 10-20 lb baby collapsing forward off your chest when they could just rest their head on your chest? A frequent quandary when I see people walking around with babies facing out in their carriers. |
Anonymous
The two situations when I liked having the infant car seat that we could remove: - When dining out during the first few months (when she slept all the time). When we drove, she’d fall asleep in the car, we’d bring the car seat in and tuck it under the table, she’d sleep through the meal. Heaven. We did this probably 40-50x, so worth it. - When taking the baby to visit friends and family at their homes. It was nice to have somewhere the baby could lie down or sleep that was safe in a house that might not have anywhere else to put her. I loved holding her and of course others did too, but sometimes it’s nice to have somewhere to put the baby down. I agree it’s not essential and in either scenario you could put the baby in a carrier instead, but having eaten with a baby strapped to my chest many times, I know it’s definitely not ideal. Thus I am pro infant seat. |