Travel system, buggy, pushchair, pram? I'm so lost! 😵‍💫

[floofycroissant]

FTM due late summer, trying to keep costs economical and buy second hand where possible. Utterly clueless.

We have a small car Suzuki Swift, after pointing out that a pushchair + baby stuff will be a tight squeeze to DH he's now adamant that we need a new car. I think he's right long term but it's not a day 1 essential to worry about now, particularly with car prices and other priorities.

For context we live 10 mins walk from a good town centre and a well connected train station. For the first 6 months. I imagine we'll be pootling around locally and the most regular car trips will be supermarket etc where a sling would do.

In my head I want a one size fits all jobs pushchair for the first 12m. Simple, small and lightweight, good on uneven surfaces for walks would be an added but unessential bonus.

I think the Bugaboo Bee and ones of a similar size will fit fairly well, but it's called a travel system. Is that only for temporary usage like on holiday?

I'm worried I'll buy something that is unsuitable for daily use. I know so many parents who've ended up buying multiple prams and I really want to try to avoid that if possible, even from just a storage pov at home it'd be a nightmare.

Any suggestions or advice greatly received!

A travel system is a pushchair/pram that you can stick a car seat on. Except for umbrella strollers, almost everything is a travel system these days. Whether you want to use it like that or not is up to you, I never have because when they’re tiny they shouldn’t be in a car seat for too long, then when they get bigger they’re very heavy to lift in the seat.

I have a YoYo for everyday use, it’s definitely durable enough (mine is on baby #2 now) but it’s made for cities and isn’t much use on uneven terrain, which is fine for us. The Bee is broadly similar. They’re probably the 2 prams I see most around our part of London! A friend of mine that lives a bit further out has an Uppababy Cruz which looks great and is a bit better for walks but still folds small for the car and you can get a newborn seat insert so don’t need to buy a bassinet. So maybe that could be worth a look.

A travel system is usually at least a buggy base and a newborn stage car seat. Either they both unclip completely from the base to swap them out with each other or the car seat is able to click into the buggy. Some travel systems have a third piece which is a bassinet/pram piece. The things you will value most long term about whichever you choose is probably basket space (does it look like stuff won’t fit or will fall out?) how far over does the hood come? (Extended ones are far better for sleeping babies in summer) and does the car seat come with an isofix base? (An absolute godsend!!!) how easy is it to lie back the backrest for a sleeping toddler? (String ones are really annoying)

The bugaboo bee is fine for your use.
Its a travel system as you can add car seat onto frame if you want to. You can buy just the pram though and don’t have to buy a full bundle. The car seat clips are available to buy separately if you change you mind or buy the pram secondhand without.

You can use the bee without the carrycot part also from newborn. They sell a cocoon instead making it smaller to fold in one piece

A travel system just means all the bits for together, so the carrycot fits on the pram and the car seat as well.

I had the Joie litetrax which fit in the boot of my mini without taking wheels off etc. When DS was small I used to put the carrycot on the front seat.

Try and visit a local (and preferably independent) pram shop to talk to someone who knows all about this stuff, they’ll even let you try it in your car!

I did this despite wanting to buy second hand, they don’t need to know you aren’t planning to buy from them. I say this as someone who now works in a pram shop 😂

Good small pushchairs I would recommend - Oyster 3, Nuna Triv, Bugaboo Bee, Joolz Hubb maybe? the Babyzen is good but baby can’t face you once they grow out of the newborn pack. All can be used without a carrycot (to save £ and space) from birth as seat lies flat or with car seat adaptors to form a travel system when you’re out (ideal if baby has fallen asleep or you are just popping into the shops quickly). Lie flat car seats such as the Cybex Cloud Z, Nuna Arra and Joie i-Level are worth looking at for that function.
hope that helps x

Thank you! This is all really helpful and reassuring. I now feel really stupid about the travel question