Double / tamdem pushchair - to buy or not to buy??

[Bigmerlin]

Hello

Ages to go, but I'm already fretting about this! Baby No. 2 due in Dec. DD will be 2yrs + 5 mths. She is already 18 kg / 38lbs, so will be over 40 lbs by then. This is way above the weight range for most pushchairs, but I can't expect her to walk everywhere at that age (plus she's quite slow and stops to look at ants and things every 2 steps, whereas I'm a bit of a power walker!).

Current thoughts are:

1. Get a Graco tandem for £99, which our current car seat will fit into, and just use for a few months then sell it. We've had a go cornering and getting up a step in Mothercare with DD sat in the front seat, didn't seem too bad at all.

2. Keep DD in our single Graco pushchair and put the new baby in a sling for a few months.

3. Put new baby in car seat in current Graco pushchair and buy a buggy board or Seat2go for DD. (Not sure about this one as I'm really tall and I think I'd be constantly bashing my feet and shins on it).

We currently walk A LOT. Car boot space is not an issue. I like travel systems, can move car seat around with baby still asleep. Not keen on the idea of doubles, and also I think there would be a lot of "overhang" from DD's side into new baby's side!

Any guidance? Budget limited, so looking at £250 ab max. So no Jane / Phil and Ted suggestions please!

Any help much appreciated.

I would do 2 and 3. I did it when dd was born (ds1 was just 2) and when ds2 was born )dd was 22mo).
Hate doubles, big, awkward in shops, hard to push etc.
Carried baby in a sling for 6mo, by then toddler was ready to walk and jump on buggyboard for any long distances.
Baby Bjorn £50 (had it anyway for ds1); b/board £45, sold it on for £20 once dd was about 3.4.
With ds2 - hah! he had to walk.
HTH but I'm sure others will disagree!

We had a Graco travel system and a Maclaren umbrella fold when dd was born. Ds was 2y3m. We got a buggy board and fitted connectors onto both buggies so we could swap it around once dd was old enough to use the Maclaren. We took the beertray off the Graco so that ds could stand up inside the handlebar. This also meant that the hood slid down a bit - it still worked fine, but ds could see over it that way.

Once we started using the Maclaren most of the time, we stopped bothering to swap the buggy board but left it on the Maclaren and when we used the Graco ds simply perched on the edge of the basket.

I did find it easier to push the G that way than with the bb attached, but even though I'm 5'8" and dh is 6'3", we found thta the bb was not particularly problematic to push. We had to shorten our strides a little, but your feet tend to go under it in any case, so it wasn't a problem.

IMO at this age diff you really don't need to buy a double buggy.