Prams/Car Seats & all the extras!

[rach217]

I'm going to admit I'm a little bit confused! I'm only 14 weeks and planning to go to John Lewis for one of their baby appointments but I'm already looking at prams & car seats, purely out of excitement really.

However I'm confused about everything you need - I think I've cracked the prams - with the carrycots etc but car seats are throwing me now! Haha!

Do you have to buy a car seat & a base, and is it better if it fits on your pram? Is that what a travel system is?

I feel like a complete idiot but I'm so confused! Any help would be appreciated xx

You don't have to do anything. Best to think about how you're likely to travel when you have a baby. I drove everywhere so bought a travel system i.e. Wheels + pushchair + car seat + carry cot. The carry cot was cheap but we could have done without it. It was useful when I started driving post c section but didn't want to pick up the baby in the car seat which was too heavy.

Being able to put the car seat on the pushchair wheels is really good for short journeys. Otherwise you have to transfer a sleeping baby and risk waking them up. If you were out for the day though you shouldn't keep them in the car seat. It's perfect for a quick trip to Tesco though.

I bought car seat bases for the cars my baby went in regularly (mine/DH/grandma). This is expensive but v convenient. Fitting isofix/belted car seats is a pain in the arse and sometimes easy to get wrong. With a base you fit it once and attaching/detaching the car seat from the base is usually easy.

If you're looking at pushchairs, consider:
Can baby face parent/outwards?
How much storage underneath?
How difficult to fold?
How much space taken when folded?
Does it lie flat for newborns?
Does it offer sun shade/rain cover?

We spent over 2 hours at our nearest Mamas and Papas store going through car seats, bases and prams without buying anything (or being pressured to). It was so worth it. We tried out different car seats on the chassis for the pram we liked to see which was easiest to get on/off (some were harder than others and would have been very tricky with the added baby weight ) then we tried fixing the infant car seat to a model base, fitting the model base in their mock car and fitting the infant car seat into the mock car with a seat belt. We also took the pushchair out to check it fitted in the boot of our car. I cannot fault their customer service.
We went back 2 months later to buy but had been to John Lewis and Mothercare in the meantime, both were helpful and explained well but definitely best at M&P