School run with a baby

[oldtownroad]

Pregnant with DC2 and thinking about how I will manage the school run with a baby. The school is a 10 min drive and then a 5 minute walk as parking directly outside the school is a nightmare. We still have a car seat from DC1, which is 5 years old. They don't make it anymore, it's a silver cross Ventura. I've given it a good clean and fitted it in the car with the seat and am confident it's correctly fitted and looks/feels safe and secure enough. However, there is no isofix or option of attaching it to our pram.

So options are:

Keep the pram in the car, and move baby from car seat to pram for school run (as well as all other outings). This would mean no space at all in the boot. We can obviously take the pram out if we need space but as we live in a flat that will be a pain.

Using a sling for school run (so transferring baby from car seat to sling) and keep the pram indoors mainly (we have a small shed at the bottom of the stairs that I can keep the chassis in). But is this practical? I never even used a sling with DC1 so I'm not sure.

Invest in a new car seat (that attaches to our pram) and isofix base (£200). We can afford it but it just seems a bit wasteful to buy a new car seat when we have a perfectly good one but I'm thinking the convenience is worth it. This would also mean I can keep the carrycot indoors and just keep the chassis in the car.

What would you do?

I would definitely use the sling and we still do with our 2 year old now. With a stretchy wrap you can have it pre tied and pop the baby in, with a buckles carrier it's a doddle to put on anyway.

We had the same set up for ds1, his car seat didn't come out or clip onto a buggy. It was the major thing I said I wanted for number 2 - it's very much worth it, if you ask me. Being able to just grab the whole seat and plonk them on a chassis is so, so much easier. Slings are good too but in the depths of winter, definitely get a portable seat if you can

You can always keep the stay-in-the-car seat for when they're older.

Yep I used a sling. I wrapped the sling on me before leaving then popped dd3 in and out when we got there.

Yep a tied wrap can be on before the journey and baby slipped in when you arrive. If you’re in Scotland you get a stretchy wrap free with a baby box.

Sling definitely my car seat fitted my pram but tbh it was a pain getting it in and out of the car. I used to put the wrap on before I left and then just slide ds into it when we got out of the car and then back out afterwards. Quick, simple and efficient.

It's not the Isofix base that you need, that is simply a safety measure for car seats to be more securely fastened into the car rather than using a seatbelt to strap the car seat in. What you need is a car seat that has buggy adapters so you can attach the car seat to the buggy. You can get a car seat for a lot less than £200 without an isofix base. What buggy do you have? My advice would be to check what current car seats are compatible with the buggy and get a second hand one along with the buggy adapters. Maxicosi fit most buggies.
When my DS was newborn he would never stay asleep from being transferred from the car seat (where he often fell asleep) into the buggy and there ain't no way I was risking waking him up so we used the car seat attached to the buggy 90% of the time and the carrycot part of the buggy was rendered practically useless. The only time it was used was if we went out walking straight from the house. Even if I went out in the car and the baby wasn't sleeping, I still used the car seat just in case he fell asleep when we were out and I didn't want to have to move from buggy to car seat and wake him up!!

Car seats are supposed to be replaced after 5 years, so I would get a new one regardless. A car seat that attaches to a pram base would probably be easier than a sling as baby gets heavy

i would buy the car seat. i can't be fuck arsing about whilst doing a school run with a baby. seat and pram wheels boom bang. slings are great but not 100% no backup method. you are going to be doing that twice a day in all weathers.

also what about when baby is sleeping in one or the other and you then have to wake them whilst moving. nightmare! love the lifty outy car seat sfm. i didn't have one with my first because of insanity so trust me.

Definitely the sling option. I did this with my third. I put the wrap sling on before we left then just shoved him in it when we got to school.

An added bonus was having my hands free to wrangle the other two

Definitely get the car seat that fits into the pram frame, it's worth every penny especially as being in the car makes babies sleepy. You don't want to wake them up every time!

Something you'll no doubt be aware of is that at 3pm every afternoon during term time, it pisses down with rain. You might want to have a think about keeping the baby dry too. I bought a maxi cosi cabriofix for my second, because I could buy a footmuff and raincover for it, plus the adaptors to clip it on to the pram wheels. I find that easier that putting baby into a sling in horrible weather.

Depending on what brand of seat and pram you have there are adaptors you can buy.

Another vote for sling I had a stretchy wrap. The pram and car seats was a faff especially in crap weather. Put the wrap on at home and coat on once parked up took baby out of car seat slipped into wrap got a maternity coat that zipped up around the 2 of us.
My friend had a doona car seat that had wheels attached. She raved about it, they are expensive new but you can find lots of people selling them online.

Car seat that attaches to pram. Mine was almost asleep during school run and being able to easily transfer to the house meant I had a bit of downtime to sit down or get something done, instead of dealing with an upset baby who had just been dragged around on the school run in the cold.

Another for sling. I practically put the sling on in the morning when I got dressed! One of the stretchy wrap ones would be dead easy to transfer a baby into. And then you have hands free for carrying lunch bags and navigating older child around dog poo.

Definitely car seat that you can clip onto the wheels. Don't get me wrong, I love slings and they are brilliant when you have older kids and need to be hands free, but I don't think they're the best solution when you're talking about a 10 minute period between 2 short car journeys.

You'd have to disturb the baby from the car seat to put it in the sling, then disturb it a second time to move it back from the sling to the car seat. You'd probably get away with that when they're tiny and sleep 90% of the time, but not so much as they get bigger.

As a pp said, mine would often fall asleep in the car, so being able to transfer to the wheels without waking them was great - ditto for getting home and being able to carry them in and maybe have time for an undisturbed cup of tea (obviously bearing in mind the guidelines re how long they're allowed to be in the seat for).

Sling. Stretchy wrap pre tied before you leave the house, coat you wore in late pregnancy over the top. Baby is warm and comfortable while you are waiting. Gives you 2 hands for other child(ren)

Sling. better to be hands free on the school run

A sling isn’t great if the baby has fallen asleep in the car as you end up waking them no matter how careful you are taking them out of the seat - and then you can have a tired, angry baby crying all the way as you walk to the school.

Its great to be able to move the car seat onto wheels. In cold weather the baby will be snug under blankets - and you have space under the buggy for schoolbags and coats.

Sling is great but I never got on with them so I found the car seat compatible with chassis invaluable just for the nursery run at lunch time. Fortunately it was half an hour walk so did the actual school run on foot just lunch time pick up in car because it was possible to park near enough to nursery at that time of day to make it worth while.

If you try the sling first and don't like it you have not really lost anything. Shops will still be open after you've had the baby.

What’s the actual distance to school? It might be better to walk the whole way rather than mess around with car seats etc.

Slings are great. DC2 was able to breastfeed in the sling so it was perfect, I could do the school run, walk the dogs, go shopping, etc and he just slept and ate through it all. I had an oversized coat and would just wear this on top of the sling when it was cold or wet but make sure the baby doesn’t overheat.

I wouldn’t use a 5yo car seat, not worth the risk.

I did love walking baby could go in the pram whenever in the morning for a sleep, load it up with school cr*p the night before and just wheel it out.

Far less stressful than in and out the car, finding a parking space etc.