To box my egg pram up to avoid airline damage?

[SenoraSurf]

We are going to Spain from UK with easyJet when DC1 will be 5 weeks old. We will be taking our beautifully stunning and expensive egg stroller with us. I have read online that you can take it free of charge and it will be put in the hold but naturally, I'm really worried about potential damage.
Would it be ok to box it up and check it in properly when we get to the airport? would I have to pay to do this?

Any experience or advice would be gratefully received!

Before anybody suggests it, getting a cheap one to take is not an option I would like to explore.

Thanks

I just looked up the price of the Egg. Aside from thinking I’d chance another DC just to have the rose gold version, it’d break my heart to see that going into the hold.

We didn’t take the carrycot/pram part of our pushchair in the car - it got used going on walks from home or for ds to sleep on. Taking it in the car didn’t happen because it just took up too much space. Not so much dh as he had an estate car at the time but in my civic I took the pushchair part or we put his car seat on the chassis as when he fell asleep in the car it was just far easier. Why not take chassis and car seat instead?

Our pram is in the attic as ds had outgrown it by about five months old. It’s pristine and we’ll probably sell it all together when ds eventually outgrows it.

Our travel system cost us about £900 but that includes car seat and adaptors and such. I wouldn’t have taken it on a flight!

I'm another one who doesn't agree with the statement made by numerous pp that everyone ends up preferring the stroller within months anyway.

I spent £600 on a travel system with an all terrain pushchair and lie flat car seat with isofix base. Every single element of this purchase has been worth it. It's definitely not a vanity thing for me as I don't actually really like the appearance of ours!

DD is tiny and just was not well enough supported by a stroller until nearly 12m. The all terrain pushchair has been brilliant. I chose a fairly lightweight one and I can lift the chassis in and out of the car with one hand and it definitely doesn't take up the whole boot of my small car. It's very manoeuvrable and quite a few of my friends from AN group have said they wished they'd got the same one.

I think some pushchairs really are worth the cost if you find one that has the features you need (being suitable for countryside walks was my priority).

All that being said, there's no way I'd take it on a plane!

If it’s a short trip I’d probably buy a cheap pram but otherwise if you’re determined to take your egg then best protection would be boxed up and the airline can advise on the additional charge payable

"Again, to those offering newborn advice, I'm sorry you struggled in your experiences. Fortunately, I'm preparing for all instances"

Ugh this... really? Be very careful the fall back to earth can give you quite a jolt. You sound very head strong and confident and that's great, but don't under estimate advice based on experience.

Oh @SenoraSurf whatever you do, please please please come back and update everyone when your baby is 5 weeks old.

I'm really excited to read about how everything went to plan for you.

Senora...

If you def HAVE to take your expensive travel system then the stokke pram pack is excellent for wrapping a buggy in, I flew long haul several times and it kept our Stokke Xplory totally safe each time. But, I also packed a lovely sling and at 5 weeks old, this is what I used way more.

If you’re happy to consider a sensible option then look at the baby jogger city mini. It lies totally flat and is a one handed fold so great for throwing in the boot of a car. But a second hand one on eBay and keep it for a couple of years - you’ll be using it happily during toddler years.

I love that you already know that your 5 week old baby will be happy to be put down in restaurants and during long family meals. 🤣 good luck with that. I really hope you get the baby you’re planning for but it’s far more likely your baby will be preparing for the next growth spurt and will want to be attached to your boob several hours a day (and usually when you’re just sitting down to a meal!)

When Ds was a few months old I had an invaluable friend who was on her second DC, who was a few weeks older than DS. Friends like these, if they are kindly, supportive people, are worth double their weight in rose gold egg prams.

As I muddled through and wondered when it would get easier, she told me that most of new mums have to go through a period coming to terms with the fact that the baby we've had is not the baby we thought we'd have. I'd add to that, we have to come to terms with not being the mother we thought we'd be.

Hope it all goes well. It probably won't go to plan, but it might still go well.

I think that the main problem with thinking you have prepared for anything, before your first baby arrives, is that the baby almost never reads your plans - and if they do read them, they give a wicked laugh, and then set about ruining every one of your carefully made plans!

Same goes for baby books - they are great, but babies never read or follow instruction manuals! My favourite baby book, and the only one I recommend, is "How Not To Be A Perfect Mother" by Libby Purves - written from her own experience and the experience of her friends, at the coal face of motherhood, it advocates taking away the pressure to be perfect - as she says, even a perfect madonna-type mother needs 20 minutes off, with her feet up and a drink. And what matters is that the baby is clean, fed, warm and happy - and if that means they are wearing nothing but a disposable nappy and one of their older brother's jumpers with the arms rolled up, it is fine.

I honestly think that the pressure I put on myself to be a perfect mother helped push me into post natal depression. I had this image of myself as a mum, and how good I was going to be at it, and when things didn't work out, it made me depressed. Breastfeeding was the biggest thing that did this for me - I so wanted to breastfeed - I went to the NCT classes and was utterly committed to it, but it never worked out with any of my three dc, and I beat myself up so badly about that.

I think planning is good - it helps us feel in control of a new situation - but we need to be realistic too, and to go into parenthood knowing that we can't control everything, and that our best-laid plans may come to nothing - but as @KingLooieCatz says, even when it doesn't go to plan it can still go well. Having small children is, in my experience, a chaotic whirlwind of ups and downs. But the ups definitely outnumber the downs, and you can learn to live with the chaos, and tame it to some extent - and to enjoy it all. But if you are too wedded to your vision of how things should be, you may find it hard to be flexible - and being flexible is key to parenthood, I think.

Sorry - that was a bit of an essay. I hope it made sense..

TL:DR - children laugh at our best laid plans so best to be flexible.

Thank goodness my kids are teenagers!
This is literally comical,lol!

Always makes me smile when you see a mum pushing a pram, but the baby is in a sling 😂 my baby fucking hated the bassinet and only rarely would he permit being put down. I always had to have the sling handy for the inevitable switcheroo.

Thank god I got the bassinet second hand. He was in the babyjogger stroller at 9 weeks and LOVED it, he could be inclined to relieve his silent reflux (maybe not 100% midwife approved but he was happy), plus I could recline it as needed for sleeps. And it folds like a dream!!

I'd have been well pissed if I'd got a new bassinet!

I really hope op comes back and updates is at five weeks!!

I'm setting a reminder to start a post asking her .. 😝

Cheap strollers are fine for toddlers but young babies need to lie flat. Not as expensive but I’ve taken a Quinny zapp plus for DD at 6 weeks for a fortnight to Spain so she could sleep flat facing me, used a sling as well but wanted to be able to swim, sunbathe etc and wanted her to be shaded. Also have taken our out n about nipper 360 double pushchair. Flying with Tui or TC on packages you keep your pram until boarding and collect off the tarmac when you land and our prams/strollers have always been unharmed, even left the sheepskin in them.

We took a Maclaren XT, lies flat and very sturdy

first world problems

I wouldn't have thought there were many posters from the developing world on MN LovelyIssues. The vast, vast majority of posts on here are of a similar level of seriousness.

Wondering how you got on OP.

Can you use a family member's pram while you are in Spain? I'd never take a nice pram on a plane.

You do realise that even by wrapping and checking it, it'll still be thrown about when it comes to the handlers?

Unless you can find a hard, heavy pram suitcase your pram will be scratched, scuffed and bent to fuck by the time you get to the other side.

It's honestly not worth it.
If you can't afford a second one then are you happy to push round one that's absolutely battered? Or does that affect the 'look'?
Because that's exactly how your pram will end up.

Oops. Zombie thread.

Still reads a ridiculous though.

I took my egg in the travel bag and it was damaged. We bought a new one when we got home. If it’s an expensive purchase for you then don’t do it. Buy a buggy.

OP, I’ve only read half the thread. I want you to know I sort of understand.

I was so sad that I was limited to double buggies when I was having my twins as I saw so many lovely single buggies everywhere. I have a bit of a weird thing where I worry intensely about what things look like and what people think (eg when the twins were little I had to dress them the same even though they were different sizes- my boys are both autistic and I have a feeling I have a few traits myself, and this is one of them. It’s not about things being fancy / expensive and I’m not at all snobby - it’s more about things looking right rather than looking wrong, hard to explain).

But once the twins were here and we were trying to function, I realised that the way a buggy looks is completely irrelevant if it’s not practical. It’s pretty much impossible to get our double travel system up and down kerbs even and it’s so heavy and hard to steer.

I guarantee you won’t use your egg until the baby is walking everywhere. Travel systems are heavy and cumbersome and you will most likely end up getting a lightweight compact buggy for times where you just want to quickly pop out, or when your toddler is refusing the buggy generally but can’t walk far. Every single parent I know has replaced by their travel system with a buggy like this by the time their child is 18 months old, at most.

Do yourself a favour and get that compact folding buggy now, use it when you travel and then you’ve got more use out of it!

Gah, zombie

Good luck - we put ours in a bag, a wheel broke off and it was scratched to pieces.