Parents in flats or small properties

[QueSyrahSyrah]

Do you mind me asking what you do / did with your pram or pushchair? Our first is due this summer and circumstances mean we'll be in a small flat for at least the first 12-18 months.

There is nowhere that we could store a pushchair or pram inside our flat, there might possibly be in a communal area in the building but that depends on some factors.

Am I naive to think that we'll be able to just keep the pram in the car and carry the baby in and out every time? In the car seat to start with and then later in our arms/sling? We have an allocated parking space outside so we wouldn't be hunting for on-street and then having to walk home.

It doesn't help that most of our walks will be rural / beach / woods so we're going to need a decent sturdy pram. We're going to look at a second hand Stokke Trailz tonight, see if it'll fit in our car!

In the car is fine if you can park reasonably close. You'd carrythem of you were going to drive somewhere anyway.

Most that fold have a detachable bassinet anyway for when they are tiny. Very useful if they are asleep and you want to bring them in.

Thank you. The one we're looking at later has the detachable bassinet, I didn't think of that as a means to bring them in and out of the flat asleep.

We kept our pram in the car but had a stand that the bassinet could go on to double up as an additional sleep space. Our bassinet wasn’t meant to be detached with baby inside so it was a little frustrating not to be able to bring them in asleep but not really a problem. If you have a deep sleeper they might transfer out asleep anyway

I didn't have a car, 3rd floor flat with no lifts. Pushchairs and bikes not allowed indoors as fire exit. I used baby carrier or took the pram down then went back up for baby. I tried to get to use the pram when I had someone to give me a hand like friend visiting or dh is home and we're going for a walk. In our tiny flat it was collapsed and set aside in the living room i think.
Having a car where you can leave it is fine.
Some places allow outside storage for bikes or prams... is it an option?

We leave the pram base in the car and use the carseat adapters as our carseat goes flat if we’re out for a long time!

We’ve hardly used the bassinet as it’s too much of a faff to take it downstairs then go back for baby or vice versa as our stairs are pretty steep!

Doable, if a bit of a pain in the arse sometimes. My pram stayed in the shed & I carried DC in and out as required. It was a bit shit if raining - I’d put DC in cot or somewhere safe, go and sort out the pram quickly with the rain cover etc, then get them ready.

Thanks all. I'll check whether we can detach the bassinet with the baby in it on whichever model we buy. There are some spaces in our oddly laid out converted building that wouldn't block any fire exits etc but we'd need to check with management company and neighbours.

Would there be space folded? We had ours folded. You can get some pretty sturdy ones that fold quite flat (if not that small). I think in the car would be fine though. We didn't have a lift so ended up carrying the pram down separately when we did use it (and pretty much solely used the sling as it was a faff! Car boot would have been much easier).

@Merrow Even folded it would be in the way in our current flat unfortunately. The flat was ideal when I bought it as a reasonably young single girl about town, not such much now with DH, a much more home-based life and an impending arrival! In an ideal world we'd have moved already but circumstances prevent it for now.

We’re in a tiny ground floor 2 bed flat; we’ve got an Uppababy Vista. For the most part it lives by the front door and we have a stand we can put the bassinet in if the chassis is staying in the car for whatever reason.

We started off in a 1 bed flat with our first baby and kept our mamas and papas occaro (big, heavy pram) in a little Micra outside and always managed fine. We now have a bigger house, 2 children and an SUV and still leave the pram in the car. Maybe it’s habit but I honestly think it’s easier that way.

We lived in a 3rd floor flat with lift so we were able to bring the buggy upstairs and leave it unfolded next to the front door. No car as we live in central London. It took up more than half the width of the narrow hallway but we just got used to walking around it. DD would always do buggy naps and I would wheel her into the flat so she stayed sleeping in the buggy - occasionally the lift would break and she got too heavy to carry in the buggy up the stairs, so I'd have to sit outdoors on a bench until she finished her nap.