How important is a buggy that takes car seats to you - for newborn twins?

bettybee

Going around in circles on what buggy I want for my twins, due in May. I want side by side, and not tandem.

And I really think there is a big advantage to being able to use a buggy system with 2 car seats for newborns. So this is swaying me to the Mountain Duet instead of the Out n About Double.

I think it is down to these 2 buggies for us. I feel like if we go for Moutain Duet, that when the babies are about 2 or 3, we could end up swapping over to the Out n About then.

For those with twins, do you think it is manageable to have a buggy that doesn't take the carseats when the babies are young?

fits

It would definitely make life easier but depends on your own circumstances. E.g. You might not use car much at all. We have a tandem setup ( babyjogger city select) which we plan to change to outnabout type when they move up in car seats. Bought second hand so very reasonable and we will get the next one second hand too.

MountainAshIRL

I always go by car seats and for cars not for buggies. I never removed my car seats, as in never had baby in them attached to buggy. There is more and more information available now on the dangers of babies spending to long in car seats because of how they are positioned. I wouldn't risk it at all and would have newborns and younger babies lying flat in buggy as much as possible.

pwurple

I never had a carseat that attached to a buggy for my children, but we live in the city, so there was no need. Shops, parks, family etc all available within walking distance.. Depends on your own daily life I guess, I didn't use the car much at all with a newborn. 

I had the nipper double for when I had a toddler and a newborn, and it was really handy. the way it goes completely flat is great. 

Plus, as above, the baby isn't supposed to be in the carseat for very long, bad for their breathing and posture.

farmchoice

for me it would be car seats that can be moved straight onto the buggy. it was mentioned that kids shouldn't be in the car seats for too long and that good solid advice but if you are just running to the shops and you need to take in and out two babies and put up a buggy and put in the other seats and take the babies out and then put them back in and then put away the seats and then the buggy etc etc...

its a pain in the hole with one and it will be a major pain in the hole with two. twins are great in many ways but be under absolutely no illusion they are a lot of work, take every opportunity to reduce your work load in little ways it will all add up and make life more manageable.

picture it this way, you are running around all morning like a blue arsed fly the little angels wont stop crying, you put then in their car seats and go for a spin, they fall asleep you go home and can bring the car seat straight in and they sleep for half an hour, this will often be the difference between a good day and a bad day, ok they end up in the car seat for an hour or more the odd time, its not ideal but it better then you having a nervous breakdown.

with twins sometimes the rules and advisory notices and best practice recommendations have to go out the window in favor of survival.

bettybee

thanks everyone.
Farmchoice - great reply. I am under no illusion at all. I used the Quinny with the maxi cosi for my daughter and thought it was a god send. She did long naps in the pram or cot but sometimes in the car seat for short naps on cranky days and was great for just popping to the shops. I live close to a town but a rural town. I have the school run to do too. If it wasn't for all of this, I would go straight to the Out n About as everything I read about them is great and sounds like just what I need from 9/12 months on. But before that I just can't imagine not having the option of attaching the car seats for quick spins/shop runs for a litre of milk etc !

Moonbeam

I had a lovely travel system for #1 and it was so handy being able to throw the seat on to the buggy,for the other 3 I had my out n about nipper (v1) and after 6 years of heavy use I am only retiring it now.
It doesn't take car seats but only on occasions did I wish it did,like when I had a toddler,bump and baby and only wanted to run in to a shop for a second but most of the time it never bothered me.
It was a seriously good buy, I have had 5 kids in it,1 permanently on the front and at times a buggy board too and it could keep going for another year if I really wanted to but now I have switched to a single as I loved the double.

Millem

I had a terrible experience with those stupid car seat adapters :mad:

I always put the baby lying flat in the buggy. We had a bugaboo cameleon. If I needed a double I would buy a side by side one no question. Way nicer for the babies and comfier looking out.
My friend had a mount buggy duet and swears by it, another had out n about mini double 360 and another had the city mini double Best of luck in deciding you could give yourself a migraine over buggies!!!!

Anne_cordelia

It's not recommended for babies to spend much time in car seats like walking around shopping centres etc. However I found it invaluable being able to clip the car seat to buggy for certain things. Like I could be in a supermarket, shopping done and home in less than 30mins so with a small baby it was much handier to do this with car seat. I generally stuck to 1.5 hours a day excluding the odd long journey. Personally I don't think the odd time going longer is much harm once they get lots of tummy and floor time and aren't constantly in baby 'containers' like bouncers etc

harr

We had a system where we used the car seat on buggy for short trips ...but the car seat was adjustable to almost flat when placed on the buggy...for the life of me I can't remember what brand...it could have been a graco

orchidsrpretty

I used the out'n'about for my twins. its a let hate of mine though to see babies in car seats all day. I did have the Maxi cosi seats that I would transfer them from house to car etc. But never missed the fact I couldn't use them on my buggy.

pwurple

Bettybee, are you rural or in a city? That makes all the difference really. If you have shops in walking distance, then you can cut all the faffing with carseats. 
Cars and babies are a total bloody faff, with straps getting tangled and needing loosening and leaning in and taking bloody coats off in the car, and then on again out of the car. I'm just allergic to them. And doubly so with twins, because by the time you've one in, you have to go round the other side of the car to get the other one in. Try that now in a carpark where people have parked on top of you. Getting the door open to get a whole carseat in, on both sides? Your back will be broken from the twisting and hauling. Those carseats are very awkward yokes and need the car door wide open. A baby is relatively simple to slip into a car compared to a carseat with a baby already in it, in a carpark, with gombeens staring at you as you leave a buggy roll away into the road.  
Plus, at the supermarket, they have those trolleys with babyseats on them, and they have trolleys that carseats can clip onto, My local supervalu has a couple of twin ones. Baby goes in those, not in buggy generally in the shop.
Getting a double buggy, with carseats on board, plus a basket around a supermarket is no mean feat! I accidentally shoplifted 2kg of spuds once doing that... I was balancing a basket on top of a double buggy, and the spuds wouldn't go in, so I shoved them into the basket underneath. Sure I completely forgot about them by the time I got to the register. Found them at home... morto. (Yes, went back next morning and paid!)

brokensoul

We have a mountain buggy duet and I can't recommend it highly enough. We walk way more than we drive though so I never bothered with car seat adapters. As pwurple says though, that might be less practical in the country.

Confused mum84

Buggy that takes car seat is invaluable - for the simple reason that if babies are asleep in car , you can move them onto buggy without waking them . Running the risk of waking babies every time you need to move them out of car would be a nightmare

Lucuma

pwurple wrote: »

Bettybee, are you rural or in a city? That makes all the difference really. If you have shops in walking distance, then you can cut all the faffing with carseats. 
Cars and babies are a total bloody faff, with straps getting tangled and needing loosening and leaning in and taking bloody coats off in the car, and then on again out of the car. I'm just allergic to them. And doubly so with twins, because by the time you've one in, you have to go round the other side of the car to get the other one in. Try that now in a carpark where people have parked on top of you. Getting the door open to get a whole carseat in, on both sides? Your back will be broken from the twisting and hauling. Those carseats are very awkward yokes and need the car door wide open. A baby is relatively simple to slip into a car compared to a carseat with a baby already in it, in a carpark, with gombeens staring at you as you leave a buggy roll away into the road.  
Plus, at the supermarket, they have those trolleys with babyseats on them, and they have trolleys that carseats can clip onto, My local supervalu has a couple of twin ones. Baby goes in those, not in buggy generally in the shop.
Getting a double buggy, with carseats on board, plus a basket around a supermarket is no mean feat! I accidentally shoplifted 2kg of spuds once doing that... I was balancing a basket on top of a double buggy, and the spuds wouldn't go in, so I shoved them into the basket underneath. Sure I completely forgot about them by the time I got to the register. Found them at home... morto. (Yes, went back next morning and paid!)

hahaha.....I can so relate to this post. Very good point that you need the car door wide open to get the car-seat-and-baby back in while your buggy rolls away and people stare. Whereas to put JUST a baby in or out with car seat fixed permanently inside the car the door only needs to be half open. I have had this issue a lot!
I still wouldn't be without my car seat adaptors for the buggy though! For the 3 month to 12 month phase they're too big for the pram fitting and too small for normal buggy (coz they can't sit up properly) so it's car seat clipped into buggy all the way. This is how I take my 9 month old around all the time, even when the car doesnt' come into the occasion. They're sitting looking up at you, it's perfect for a baby.

bettybee

Thanks everyone. I am so glad I posted on here. You need people to talk sense to you every now and then lol !!
I was in the school carpark yesterday and could hardly get myself in and out the door never mind 2 carseats !!!

I am living a 10/15 minute walk from a small town, not my main town for shopping but my daughter goes to school in this town. I would hope in time (maybe naively !) to a lot of country road walking and beach walking. That's what I did when my daughter was a baby but I know it won't be so easy this time !!

shesty

Lucuma wrote: »

hahaha.....I can so relate to this post. Very good point that you need the car door wide open to get the car-seat-and-baby back in while your buggy rolls away and people stare. Whereas to put JUST a baby in or out with car seat fixed permanently inside the car the door only needs to be half open. I have had this issue a lot!
I still wouldn't be without my car seat adaptors for the buggy though! For the 3 month to 12 month phase they're too big for the pram fitting and too small for normal buggy (coz they can't sit up properly) so it's car seat clipped into buggy all the way. This is how I take my 9 month old around all the time, even when the car doesnt' come into the occasion. They're sitting looking up at you, it's perfect for a baby.

This is funny, because I'm the total opposite!! I stopped using the pram after about 5 weeks and used the buggy seat with an infant insert (we have a Uppababy Vista, and there's 21 months between our two kids). Car seat I've used the odd time, but I find it's a total nuisance in some ways. You have to park with two in such a way that both sides of the car are accessible for both toddler and baby, which is not easy. To park in such a way as to get a maxi cosi in and out BOTH sides of the car would be tough to say that least, I'd imagine.My baba rarely sleeps in the car because her big sister is far too interesting and has to be watched at all times :rolleyes: regardless of how tired she might be. As for for out walking, I wouldn't use the car seat at all for that, buggy seat all the way.Also we had to have a toddler seat in place for our older girl on long walks, and with the toddler seat and car seat, she had no space front of her face. (with the toddler seat turned to face out, the buggy was incredibly difficult to push and steer)

We have since got an out and about Nipper too, much easier to use for both of them.The older one is walking more now though, so I use the Vista buggy for the baby. Total pain to be fiddling about with adaptors for the car seat on it, when I've to unpack buggy, baby and toddler, so I just pop her in the buggy seat all the time. With the Vista I had to take it out of the boot, take the buggy seat off, put on car seat adaptors, fit toddler seat, fit car seat (with some wriggling of the toddler seat and cursing), and then insert toddler into seat. Complete pain in the ****, my back was broken with it all.The Nipper is a one fold open and close buggy, it's a godsend that way.

Our living situation would be very similar to yours, although we don't have the school drop offs yet - if I were you I think I wouldn't make the car seat adaptor thing the deciding factor on your buggy purchase, rather a nice-to-have extra.

Lucuma

The Uppababy Vista double buggy set up sounds painful!
We have the Phil & Teds double buggy.
The normal buggy seat is built into it - not removable so no need to 'remove' it to put any other seat on there.
I take buggy out of the boot, put the car seat adaptor into it (coz it won't fold with that in there) then put the toddler seat on it and then take car seat (with baby inside) out and click it in, then take toddler out and put her in the toddler seat.
The use of the car seat doesn't change the set up for the toddler, she would have exact same room in front of her face if I was using the normal buggy seat and toddler seat (as opposed to car seat and toddler seat)
I never heard of an infant insert for a buggy! That would solve the problem of what to do with them when they're too big for pram part and too small for normal buggy seat (i.e. the period from 3/4 months to 12 months)

fits

Anyone know if an insert would work ok with baby jogger city select? We walk with the car seats quite a lot. Don't have thebassinets.

shesty

The infant insert for our buggy is an Uppababy product, you can google it.It's a bit like the type of insert you get in car seats for the first six months, with a wedge to support the back, and a little ring to support the head. I got it for my first, she had silent reflux and screamed blue murder in the pram (car seat in buggy was totally out of the question for her), so I had to find some other way to get out and about with her. She needed to be tipped up a bit, although it's supposed to be used with the buggy laid flat.

Our buggy seat is ok to use without the insert from six months though.

There could be other inserts out there that might work....I'm not sure.The Uppababy one could work either, I'm not sure.Probably worth a look though.

Lucuma

ah the insert is supposed to be used with them laid flat......that explains why I haven't heard of it then. So for the Uppababy when they're at the age to be laid flat you have pram part and then teh insert inside the pram fitting? (if you followed the 'right' thing to do I mean ) but you have discovered that it can also fit into the buggy part?

Shesty I'm also cureious - about using the Vista as a double buggy i know you said you don't really bother anymore but if you were to.......I'd have the problem that if I stopped using the car seat for the 9 month old and put her in the buggy part instead, then the 2 year old would be on teh lower toddler seat and the baby would be in front of her in teh buggy part, the whole thing would tip back I think coz you're supposed to put the bigger child in the front.
But if I put the 2 year old in the front then the baby would be down low in the toddler seat - totally unsuitable for her!
How do you get around that issue?