To insist on a parent facing pram with carrycots.

[user1487755366]

I am prepared for you all to tell me that I'm being unreasonable. Currently pregnant with twins - a few weeks ago DP started looking at pram options and measured up the boots of our cars. I have a Nissan Micra (new style) he has a Mini Cooper (ridiculously small boot size).
He found a pram he thinks will fit. Today I said I've been thinking and like a different brand because I want them to be parent facing and also in carrycots when they're tiny. He asked 'can you have it without carry cots' and I said no because they're part of the model and I'd want the other model with optional carrycots he said it categorically won't fit in his car and we'd just have to accept that we couldn't drive the babies anywhere....

I'm really upset about this. Does anyone have either of these cars and have a double buggy with carrycots? How important is parent facing - it's something I really want when they're tiny.

Car seats are the safest way to transport your babies in the car, but they are for the car only. The position is not safe for long periods, especially for small and preterm babies. Ideally you’d have them in carrycots but a lie-flat pushchair would be better than car seats all the time. Look at the ones with smaller, soft carrycots such as baby jogger or mountain buggy.

I think assuming you're not out and about for school runs or something equally inflexible the chance of you going out in the car with twins while they are still small enough to fit in carrycots is going to be low, you're not going to be up and about on day 3 and regularly attending baby groups by week 2! Absolutely find parent facing pushchair seats if you can and it's important to you but don't worry about the carrycots.

And I agree with everyone else, with those cars you're not going to be going far anyway as you'll only have space for about 3 nappies by the time you have put 2 car seats and a double buggy in!

@KeyWorker

Some car seats are perfectly safe for long periods of time.

I have silver cross with carrycot and pushchair and honestly my baby has always been more happy facing the world than me as she loves a good nosy. I didn’t realise just how far back the pushchair reclined so genuinely think the carrycot is unnecessary. I also thought the pushchair was safer - in the carrycot bit she would regularly go to bottom of pram which stressed me out no end whilst the pushchair had straps. Finally, she suffers from reflux and I found the slight incline of the pushchair option worked better for her.

Thank you for the responses. To address questions:

• no my OP is not a patriarchal monster who insists on travelling with me everywhere.

• lots of useful tips about particular buggy brands - thank you. Sounds like front facing is more a priority than carrycots when they're small though they are hard to come by.

• lots saying we need a new car - I think that's right- eventually...it's just not an option at the moment financially if we can help it at all. Will look at the sums and mull it over.

Thanks again for sharing your own experiences and offering thoughts!

I had a Phil and Ted voyager. One is parent facing and one is below, you can still see them with the hood down. I was religious about switching them over every time they got in it so they both got to go properly parent facing at least half the time. It folds up smaller than lots of the side by sides. The carrycots fold with the pram so don't need to remove them. We had a kia rio at the time and had no problems fitting everything in. You're going to have to choose i think. Fitting it in the boot, or having both twins parent facing 100% of the time. Mountain buggy etc the seats are very small and probably wouldn't fit a large 2.5yo very comfortably.

oh and lazy precious firstborn always hated the carrycot on the bugaboo. Screamed his head off. Always far too nosy curious about the world. Had to be propped up/tilted on an angle or in the sling.
Snoozy second was less bothered.

Just remembered I had a city jogger and it was fantastic. Mine twins are now 9yo and I still remember how much effort they were physically. You are doing everything twice in and out, in and out so make sure it’s light and easy to use. (Please ignore the poster who suggested a roof box or rack I had a c-section and it’s just a bonkers idea). Also when they get bigger and heavier remember you will be pushing two of them up a hill so don’t get a heavy system. It’s an expensive mistake to get wrong.

I've got a single pram with a carrycot and it just about fits in my old style Focus, but not with the parcel shelf and it'll only go in at a very specific angle I'd struggle with any sort of double, I've also driven a Mini and there's no way even my single would fit in it at all!

I always preferred forward facing. What benefit is there for them to get this foreshortened view of your exhausted, wrung out face, occasionally making flickering eye contact with one twin then the other when most of the time you need to keep your eyes on the route as twin prams are tough to navigate.

Let them look out at the world. Their vocab will be off the scale if you talk to them. In fact one way of getting them talking is to ask questions with your back to them so they can't point - they have to speak (not at 6 months obvs

@2007Millie

You are correct actually, there are more and more on the market that are lie-flat. It’s just something worth concidering that’s all. Especially with twins.

Will you be driving a lot on mat leave? Will you drive regularly for days out? Or are you thinking about popping to the shops etc and more generally you want a prank for walking places? Because I’d be inclined to go for something you can clip the car seats to and just make sure the frame fits in your boot. I have a Nissan Micra and I can get my baby jogger in it as well as my allotment crap so there is wiggle room but not loads!

Slightly different as I only had one but I had a lovely parent facing carry cot. It looked lovely. The lanky bugger had outgrown the beautiful carrycot by 4 months and I mostly had him in his car seat on the pram anyway. It also has a very comfy pram seat so it's still getting plenty of use but I could probably have gone for something with a smaller fold and no carrycot.

Yes you do have a small car but not everyone can afford to upgrade when twins come along. And yes you'll be able to fit a changing bag in with everything you need. I had car seats that went on the pram chassis but i don't remember using them really. Just put the babies in the bassinets when we wanted to go somewhere.

"We'll have to accept we can't drive the babies out anywhere!" That means he'll be back off to work after they're born with all the break from childcare and interaction that entails, and you'll be stuck where you can walk to with two babies. Even in the depths of winter.

Babies outgrow the carrycots before you can blink - plus you can use the first car seats as a carry cot so if you're going anywhere and they fall asleep in the car, you'll use those. I had twins and chose a Maclaren forward facing side by side buggy as it was easy to fold up/open, and fitted easily in the boot of my normal family saloon. If his car has two doors that's a no-no, especially with twins, you have to have a four door as soon as they get heavier than about 10 lbs! (And apart from the effect on your back - imagine if you had an accident and no-one could get to the children in the rear of the car).

I accept you like the idea of parent facing but I never missed it. But I live rurally and mostly went everywhere by car - if you plan to do lots of trips from home then maybe things are different for you. But my main thing was a light, easy, manoeuvrable buggy that I could pop open and shut and lift into the boot on my own.

If you do end up with side by side - bear in mind that if you need to get it through a narrow doorway, you can kick up the clips that start to fold it up and make it a few inches narrower, just temporarily. A godsend in my tiny doctors surgery......

Twins are so fab - enjoy!!

We have a Subaru Forester (“small” American SUV) and our Bugaboo chameleon fit with the carry cot comfortably but only going horizontally and not much else fits in. A double anything with carry cots is going to be a stretch in those cars! Infants can stay in car seats for some time, are you really going to be driving that many places with twins? I’d look into something like a GB POCKIT, folds up super tiny and you can get a carry cot for it that also folds up, then plan to put the other twin in a carrier. Even when they are big enough not to need carry cots, you’ll struggle getting anything double into such small cars. Bugaboo does fit in my mum’s mini, but not with carry cot.

Skip the pram and get a twin sling. We had a mini monkey sling, then a twingo when our twins were bigger. Absolutely brilliant and soooo much quicker than wrestling them into a buggy. Good luck!

Oh - and the buggy did flip between upright and lie flat so it was fine from newborn right throughout their toddlerhood. We didn't need to keep buying different items.

When they were about 4 I replaced it with a Tesco £10 single lightweight fold up one which we took to days out and shows etc. It was great as we could put picnic baskets etc on it and hang all our shopping off the handles, but it provided a seat if (when) one got tired, and we could even sit the other on the top of the back and push both about.

I didn't have a carrycot for either of mine. As long as you have a car seat attachment, it will be fine.

Out n about nipper 360 double.

The carrycots can be collapsed flat. It folds up virtually flat, (all the wheels clip on and off as needed if boot space is tight) and if you decide the carrycots are unnecessary at a later date you can forward face in them from a young age (there is a clear window in the hood so you can still see them) and its strong enough that it will last until the twins are in school.

It also holds its value well so you can pick them up secondhand easily at a slightly reduced cost and all the different bits (carrycots etc) sell well as and when you want to buy/sell.

I would look at a mountain buggy diet as a previous poster suggested, it's narrow and the carrycot fitting is soft.

For our twins We had a city select. It will definitely fit in the smallest sized Kia (picanto?)with the seat parts, which lay pretty much flat. I doubt the carry cots would fit. It forward faces, rear faces and you can let them face each other, ideal when a bit older if you need them to occupy one another for a few minutes! The twins shared a carry cot for about a month.

However we used slings, one each, when out and about as a family. Far lighter, easier to do stuff and they settled easier meaning we could do things. It’s worth finding a sling library and trying a few out.i had a moby wrap, dh preferred a cloth one with tie bits. The pram, if it came with us, was used mainly to carry picnics, coats etc (when they were babies ds was 2.5 and no longer in a pushchair).

We used a rucksack instead of a changing bag. One strap off each side of the pram handle if using the pram. That would fit cloth nappies for two, wipes, spare clothes for three, snacks for the toddler, breastfeeding so no feeding paraphernalia. I really don’t miss carrying it all round!

When are they due? DS was a singletons and I had a McLaren carrycot/buggy thingie. He was born Xmas Day. By the time he was 3 months I had a telescopic buggy thingy for when I used the car and it stayed in the car. The big pram was for walking trips only - and we had a lot.

Carrycot doubled up as a moses basket, downstairs sleeping apparatus.

Q

If you did want carrycots the Cosatto wow XL can take 2 and isn't side by side. I couldn't fit it in my boot but I had a smart car at the time m.