Buying the buggy for your baby is a rite of passage, right? I was SO excited when we bought the pram/buggy/stroller thing in August; I'd played with all the models in Babies R Us and decided which was best. We hadn't needed a travel system, because we don't have a car. I read the reviews online- they were pretty negative, but I figured that only grumpy people bothered to review stuff (I know I usually review stuff on websites when I've had a bad experience.)
Alas. The buggy turned out to be a nightmare. It was heavy on the big hill on which we live. It had to be broken into two parts for storage. And then the big meltdown occurred last week. D had been screaming all day, I was at my wits' end. I'd rung my husband and my aunt in tears. The latter was on her way to visit me. I decided that the best thing to do was to take D for a walk. We have a good park on our doorstep.
I got the pram ready and wrestled my screaming baby into it. My neighbour from across the street smiled at me sympathetically. I was on the verge of tears and had been for about an hour. And then it happened. The sodding break wouldn't un-break. It was enough to make me turn into a sobbing puddle. Cue my next door neighbour coming outside, offering to take D and informing me that her kettle was on, I could come inside and wait for my aunt. I abandoned the buggy outside for a while.
The next day, my in-laws visited and fixed the break for me. I was utterly relieved- if the buggy wasn't working, I would be very isolated; earlier that day, I'd taken D into town on the bus, in the sling. My back was on the verge of collapse by the time I got home. We couldn't take it back, as we've lost the receipt, which is fantastic. I was very, very happy.
Until Sunday. My sister, mother-in-law and I walked to watch my husband do the local half marathon. It was a nice day, a long walk was fine. All was well until we wanted to move on- and the sodding break refused to un-break again. I'm proud to say I didn't swear at this point. Luckily, my father-in-law was able to fix it
again and everything was fine-ish. I was muttering about buying a new buggy, but wasn't serious at that point.
My patience held out until we tried to walk to get the bus- and a wheel fell off. Well. Again, I'm proud to say that again I didn't swear. Instead, I asked my sister if she would mind not travelling back up to Yorkshire until we had a) deposited the baby back at home with some responsible family adult and b) taken me to purchase a new buggy. She agreed, possibly frightened by the cold, hard gleam in my eyes and the calm, monotonous tone to my voice. I was holding it together, clearly.
Anyway, in the end, we bought the following stroller:
It's a Mothercare Mino Plus stroller and I'm a little bit in love with it. We were able to afford it as my grandma had given us a gift card that still had some money on it and my mother-in-law stumped up the rest (although it wasn't extortionate- £94.99). I love it because it's lightweight and has a little pocket at the back where I can put my purse and a bag of crisps. And although I was initially reluctant to put D forward facing, he's such a nosy little blighter that he loves it. Bonus- it weighs less than he does and it's super easy to fold. Although we have a house, it's small, so an origami-like buggy will always win. It is suitable from birth, although I would have been reluctant to put D in it as a tiny baby, this gave me confidence that he would be safe in it. The one downside to the buggy is that it doesn't have a foot muff, but I've just been wrapping a blanket round D's legs, which seems to be OK.
And if you're interested, the demon buggy was this
one.
