Do you use a stroller?

^^That's the kind I have. It was $20.00 compared to the $100.00 travel system. We bought a transition car seat and that was still cheaper (The US and car seat) than the 1 stage car seat and stroller system.

 

I have a side-by-side stroller for when I'm out on my own with the twins. It's heavy, bulky and awful to use and manouvre.

My boys are too big (and heavy!) for their slings now. But they were a godsend.

I also have two umbrella-handle single strollers for when I go out with someone. That's a lot easier.

Also if I'm going into a shopping mall on my own, I'll put one boy in the shopping trolley (ie cart) main part, where all the groceries go (with something padded to sit or stand on) and one in the trolley seat. That's the easiest way of all - but not particularly the safest...

 

i love slings and wraps, but now that my girl is going to be 2, the sling is really starting to hurt my shoulder. i took her on a 5km hike this summer and it near broke my poor shoulder. we tried a borrowed back pack carrier but she hated it. so my mother got me the coolest expensive sporty stroller, which is great because i live on a gravel road and umbrella stroller wheels get jammed on the stones.

yeah so we use a stroller when we go on bigger walks now thanks to my mom

but infants in slings are just soooo sweet!!

kathy

 

I don't have anything against strollers, as long as the baby is happy in them. The only time I don't like them is when the baby is screaming, and the parent is keeping the baby in the stroller, trying to jam the pacifier or bottle in the kid's mouth, when just picking the baby up would be the solution. Tamee, I can't see you abusing a stroller at all. I am sure you'll use it appropirately,

My kids didn't use a stroller until they were between 6 and 9 months old, and we were walking too much for me to sling them for that long. (I am not only very small, but too much pressure on the arteries going from my arm to my head will precipitate a major migraine, so I had to be careful with the sling.) My kids always liked to sit in the stroller, so they could see what they were doing. I killed our first stroller, by putting a baby AND a toddler in it at the same time, because we didn't have the money for a twin stroller, and Sunshine was only 2 years older than Moon. Man, I destroyed that thing. (A lot of walks to the library and the park, then loaded down with books, too.)

My pet peeve is the car seat IN the shopping cart, or, worse putting an 9 lb baby into 16 lbs of plastic carrier and carrying it with one's hands, shaking and weaving and the kid crying. Never made sense to me. Four kids, and my car seat never left my car. I always found shopping easier with the baby either in the sling, OR propped up in the "baby" part of the cart. With Sage I had this cloth thing, that would protect her from getting germs on her from the cart handle, and also had a soft seat. With the other kids, I would use a head of lettuce on one side of the baby and a few rolls of toilet paper on the other. Little finger holes in my lettuce.

 

:lol No, me neither. I did bring our infant carrier in a few times with each of my kids... if they were asleep I would have walked on molten lava to keep them that way for just a few minutes longer, so I would lug the contraption around with a snoozy baby inside it. But if they were awake??? Yeah, that just never made much sense to me either.
love,
mom

 

Out of six kids our youngest (11 months) is the only one we've extensively used a stroller with. I bought a much too expensive high tech jogger/stroller with bicycle tires. Where we live there are tons of trails that go everywhere. With the bicycle tires this thing is truely the off road vehicle for babies. We live in the sticks, but we have a roadhouse and general store about a half mile away. I can walk the baby and pack the stroller with goods from the store in the basket under the seat or even carry a load a laundry. We never use it to go shopping with and hardly ever load it into the truck to take it anywhere, but it has been great to have.

 

I've been guilty of using the carseat in the shopping cart, but only when Moire's sleeping. She hates to take naps, but is so cranky in the evening if she doesn't. So anytime she naps, I park next to a cart, put her in the cart, then tip-toe through the store.

 

I did the carseat thing a few times, too. Most of the time I slinged her, or since she learned how to sit, in the front part of the cart. but yeah, a lot of the time she hated that damn thing and it was hell getting her in and out of it. If she was happy, I was not going to risk making her mad by taking her out and them having to strap her back in again.

 

no way in he.. was i going to wake up a sleeping baby to take him out of the 'baby bucket'. and no way did i ever feel guilty about it. my kiddo was so 'colicky' when he was an infant, i let him have peace whenever he found it, even if it meant that he wasnt being held. now i know it was sensory integration disorder that he had, but back then i had no idea what it was, just that nothing worked to help him be the happy content baby that i was supposed to have if i breastfed, coslept and kept him in arms all the time. ha!

sometimes mama's are so judgemental of each other. let the love flow and let's try to support each other in our decisions as parents. attachment parenting is all about doing what's best for our child, and that's not always the same for everybaby.

ps, i've used a sling, my arms, a babybackpack carrier, baby bucket (in a shopping cart! ::gasp!:: ), and when he was older, a stroller, a sled, and now we've just gotten a trail-a-gator for our bikes.

 

I'm a horrible mother, I make my kids use their legs.

They are 50 and 40 pounds, I'm not carrying or pushing them anywhere.lol They have good legs and they can use em.

People wonder why my daughters are so slender? Muwahahahaha.

 

I have always kept Abryn in her car seat in the cart when we go shopping. I never really thought to do it any different. but the last time we went to walmart I put her in the mei tai and I really like it a lot better. I don't have to carry that heavy ass thing around.

 

tamee~off topic, but your sig is too cute for words!

 

hey thanks! I absolutely love this one!

 

Can you somehow wear/carry a baby on a bike? if so, that would be WONDERFUL!

 

there's those attatchment thingys that you can get fot the back of the bike......it's almost like a car seat. There's also those trailer things that basically have bike tires themselves that pull behind. I'm looking to get one of those, but new, they cost $250. Ouch.

 

for a baby who can't even sit? mine's only 5 1/2 months old!

 

someone recently pointed out to me something that I think explains why my kids hated strollers (and me, too). It's difficult to interact with baby when they are sitting way down in a stroller, or strapped into a carseat bucket. I constantly talk to my kids, long before they could talk (but Jenny was speaking in complete sentences before she could walk). And, babies in slings get more attention from strangers, too.

 

yeah, I've noticed that, too. it's pretty easy for me to forget about Abryn for a minute while she's in the stroller. I've gone to stores before with her in the stroller and walked a few feet away to look at something and then looked back at the stroller realizing I didn't even face the stroller towards me so she could see me. she had just been sitting there, staring at something/someone else while I was into whatever I was looking at.

but for me sometimes I HAVE to put her in the stroller because after awhile she really hates being in the baby carrier. and we walk at least a mile, sometimes two every day. we live outside of town and I don't have a car so we have to walk to town every time I need to go to the bank or the store or something. I put her in the baby carrier for as long as she likes it and when she starts to squirm around I put her in the stroller until I can tell she wants me to hold her again and then I put her back in the carrier. it works pretty well for us and she likes to sit in the stroller and watch everything anyways. I feel pretty good that it's not hindering our relationship at all.