Prams and car seats

[Bubbles021]

I am 31 weeks pregnant with my second baby, but the first baby to come home.
We lost our first baby at 33 weeks and hadn't brought a car seat or pram, so this part is all very new to us.
I have been looking around to get an idea of what's out there, but I've noticed that at shops like mamas and papas a lot of their prams come with a part that doubles as the car seat. So I'm basically wondering, what is the real difference between getting a car seat that's part of the pram, or a car seat that is separate?
And what are everyone else's experiences and recommendations? Thank you 😊

I thought they were pretty much all "travel systems" where you can interchangeably click the car seat, the upright buggy seat, and the lie flat carry cot on and off as you please.
Can't offer experience since we've literally only just ordered ours!
But if your baby is going to be spending time in the pram, you should definitely have a completely lie flat carry cot. Babies shouldn't be in the car seats for too long while their skeletons are developing.

If it’s a travel system it will include a car seat that can click onto the pram base with adaptors. Very handy if baby is sleeping and you want to nip around the shops without lifting them into the main bassinet cot of the pram.

You can also buy a different branded car seat and check if you can get adaptors to click they into your pram base instead.

or you can get car seats that stay in your car but you would have to keep lifting baby in and out

Sorry about your previous loss. Prams which you can attach car seats to mean that you can just take the car seat out of the car and attach to the pram frame. This is convenient if you are just getting out of the car for a short time, especially if they fall asleep in the car seat. But recommendations are not to stay in the car seat for over 2 hours. So I used this option if just popping to a shop quickly. It saved taking the whole pram out and meant I didn't need to transfer the baby from car seat to pram and disturbing them. But if out for a longer time I would put baby in the carrycot of the pram.

.....and in the first 4-6 weeks, i.e. newborn stage, they shouldn't be in the car seat for more than 30 minutes! I believe the manufacturers still say 2 hours for all babies, but scientists are now saying max 30mims for newborns.

So get a carry cot if you're wanting to have nice walks with the little one!

Thank you all! That's all really useful, we feel so stupid not knowing this stuff but it's all quite overwhelming. Thank you for your help 🙂

Don't feel stupid, how would you know all this stuff?!
So sorry you didn't get to bring your first baby home.

Regarding the travel systems some shops will have them on display to try out, maybe independent pram shops, John Lewis, or Smyths which I always thought was just a toy shop.
You might want to check gumtree or similar if you want to buy a used model but you might prefer a new car seat.

If you have a budget in mind people might be able to help, also consider your lifestyle and the size of your car boot!

@Flederjo since when? My dd travelled 3 hours each way to see relatives at 10-12 days old then flew 10 hours in the bassinet provided by BA (like a car seat) at 6 weeks. Absolutely fine if they are not preemie's

@motogirl
From NCT scroll down halfway for newborn

More info based on studies

I'm obviously not saying it will damage all newborns to be in a car seat for more than 30mins! Just that that's what's now recommended

Hi @Bubbles021. I'm so sorry to hear of your first loss. And like PP have said, you're not stupid at all! We don't know this stuff until we need to! There are so many options out there, so it's about finding the travel system that's right for your circumstances. If you're shopping for prams/travel systems I found these questions helpful:

• Do you drive? If so, it's often more cost-effective/efficient to buy a travel system. You don't need to purchase the car seat with the pram/pushchair, but you do need to make sure they're compatible with whatever arrangement allows you to connect the car seat to the chassis of the pram. Then as others have said you can simply clip the car seat to the pram chassis for quick whizzes around the shops.

• Do you have a small car? Make sure the system you choose will fit in the boot. Some places will let you try. An independent pram shop might be more likely to do this than John Lewis.

• Is there a big height differential between you and your partner/the other person who'll be a primary pram pusher? If so, make sure the pram can adjust to suit you both.

• Do you plan to use the carrycot of the pram for long walks or overnight sleeps? If so make sure the system you choose is certified safe for that.

• Do you think you might have a second child while the first is still in a pushchair? If so, it's cost effective to buy a system that's convertible to a double.

• Do you have space at home to easily store the pram system indoors? If you want to use it again after this baby, it'll need to be somewhere dry and clean, e.g. not a shed. This may affect the size of pram you go for.

• Will the pram need to cope with different types of terrain? You might want something very compact and nippy if you're a city dweller who'll be using public transport/busy pavements a lot, or something more robust if you're likely to do lots of park/country walks etc.

• Is it sunny a lot where you live? You're scheduled to have a late summer/early autumn baby, so in if you're UK based it's probably not too much of an issue, but for us it was important to make sure the carrycot would have enough sun protection (due v. soon!)

We plumped for an Uppababy Vista V2 after answering all these questions because it seemed to tick most of our boxes. They're pricey as hell new so we managed to get one hardly used second hand, and I bought a new carrycot mattress for it (for hygiene and safety). It's compatible with the Cybex car seat my sister gave us, and though we're in London, we also need it to be able to handle the absolute middle of nowhere countryside where the grandparents live and we spend a lot of downtime. We're considering a second child relatively soon after, and this pram converts to a double. We also got a spare pushchair seat thrown in, so we're future proofed. The Uppababy Vista V2 is bulky though, and we're might buy a much more compact pushchair for running around town too later down the line. BabyZen YoYos seem to be the system of choice in London because of their small size.

I hope all this babbling helps! Good luck. It took us bloody ages to work this stuff out!

@deliwoman1 thank you so much! That really is useful and I'll talk through all of that with my husband. I really appreciate your help 😊