prams Archives - A Baby on Board blog

At what age do you stop using a pram?

Gillian — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 04:00:19 +0000

Parents, tell me – at what age do you stop using a pram? At what age do you stop using a pram with your child, for good, and… What do you do with all your STUFF when you do stop using a pram? Our pram days are numbered… It appears that our pram days are numbered. Florence has been vocally and physically reluctant to use it for a while, we’ve started to make short trips entirely on foot, and we even ventured further afield recently without it. Spoiler: it was all fine. She’s very nearly three, which seems about the right age. But…but…at what point do take the big and somewhat scary step to ditch it altogether? Stopping the buggy use with our first baby Eliza was unceremoniously pushed out of the pram – not literally – when her baby sister arrived, and promoted to the loftier heights of the buggy board instead. So we never really had to ask or answer the question. Or find another way of carrying shopping home (we shop online so I’m mainly thinking more of the daily time-wasting trips and the ’emergency’ milk and wine…and more wine…what do you do with such heavy items? Invest in a rucksack?!). Although there are obvious benefits of going pram-free – fostering independence, the bus and tube being a million times easier, more floor space in the house – I have to admit it’s just a lot easier for ME to use it. Mainly to carry all the stuff, and because half a minute down the road one or both children’s legs inevitably and inexplicably become exhausted. And as we walk everywhere, quickly because we’re usually late, it makes sense to keep using it. Especially on the two nightmare school run mornings a week that require getting them both out of the house on time and then to school and nursery, which are about a billion minutes away from each other. Even when you’re running. Thinking about the practicalities of no pram But then there are the much less practical reasons. Although prams are so practical they aren’t something I can imagine myself becoming misty-eyed and nostalgic about, they are such an integral part of early parenting, aren’t they? From picking them and buying them to the first trip out of the house, to all the millions of other times when you have to weave them around tables and slot them in around all the other prams in the cafe and all the late night long strolls around and around the block and the park to get your wide-awake newborn to nap for just five minutes, please, anything. And more than anything, it seems an incredibly short amount of time from picking them when you’re pregnant to now saying bye to one of the last things from the baby days….doesn’t it? So, tell me – at what age do you stop using a pram? Our favourite pram, the Bugaboo Bee 5 review – and how to get around on public transport with a pram – and follow me over on Instagram

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New Silver Cross Reflex pram launch, at St Martins Lane Hotel

Gillian — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:06:15 +0000

Eliza and I headed over to Covent Garden yesterday to the launch event for the brand new Silver Cross Reflex buggy, braving the rush hour commute. Here’s an initial review of the new pram, and first thoughts (you can also read my review of the iCandy Raspberry buggy). You can read all about it over on my TalkMum post, but the Reflex is an umbrella fold pram you can use from newborn to toddler stage. It converts from parent-facing newborn mode into front-facing upright, and you can use it as a travel system with the Silver Cross carseat. It’s light and compact, and even has an LED light system for use when you’re out in the dark (this is really simple – why has no-one thought of it before?) The Reflex is £250, and £75 for the newborn kit, and it includes the car seat adapters, lining, foot muff and the adapters. This is incredibly good value considering you’ll only need one transport system through all the baby phases – I speak as someone who paid a lot for a pram that we had to buy all the extras for, and then bought a separate umbrella fold later on. While we probably would still have gone for our Bugaboo Bee, we might have bought the Reflex earlier on instead of our Maclaren. I think the Reflex would be brilliant to take on holiday with a newborn as it’s light and small (and you’d have less worry about your expensive pram being ruined in a cargo hold). It also includes all the extras – the lining and footmuff – that our Maclaren doesn’t. The St Martin’s Lane Hotel was lovely, as always. It’s funny taking Eliza to places in London that I last went for drinks, way before she arrived. She spent a lot of time running around (a lot of time, which was impressive considering she’d been up for most of the night before and awake since 6am). She finally went to sleep when we got home. I was exhausted. How do toddlers have SO much energy? Surely the million dollar question.

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Our Quinny Moodd review

Gillian — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 10:20:36 +0000

Are you looking to buy a pram or travel system, considering the Quinny Moodd buggy and want to read a Quinny Moodd review? Our Quinny Moodd review: We were recently invited along to meet with Quinny at The Baby Show, for a special top secret buggy review mission. We were given the new model of the Moodd to try out while we were there, and have been reviewing it for the past few weeks. So here’s what we thought (you can also read my iCandy Raspberry review, Britax Affinity review and Armadillo Flip XT review) But first, some background on us and prams: We don’t have a car at the moment, so any pram we use has to be suitable for public transport (the bus, tube, taxis, south London’s Dickensian train station network with lots of stairs and no lifts and so on) and getting in, out and around central London Our flat is up two flights of stairs, and as we don’t like to leave things downstairs overnight we need something that’s fairly portable We went for a Bugaboo (the Bee+) before Eliza was born – as it’s very small and light – and it’s been brilliant. We recently bought a Maclaren Volo to take on holiday, and have used it a lot as it’s even lighter and more portable than the Bee. Moving on to the Quinny Moodd, some first thoughts: It’s a three wheel pram with an automatic, hydraulic unfold motion Suitable from birth to 15kg, it comes with a padded ‘baby nest’ cocoon that fits on top of the seat when reclined and is secured with the straps. We haven’t used this but it looks pretty cosy From six months+ you can use the normal seat, which can be in both forward and parent facing modes and has three levels of recline Maxi Coxi carseat adaptors are included, so you don’t have to fork out extra for these – and it fits the Stage 1 Maxi Cosi carseats It comes in seven different colours (ours has a black frame and red accessories) It costs around £600 and you can buy it at most major baby-focused retailers. The price includes the baby nest, shopping basket, parasol clip, sun canopy with UV50+ protection, raincover, t-bar and car seat adapters. The good points… The Quinny Moodd is strong, stable and robust. It’s light to push and easy to steer, even one handed. The air tyres means it’s a very smooth ride Eliza loved being higher up, and the padded t-bar at the front. I suspect she likes to think she’s driving it It looks great – the frame and design is very modern, the colours are vibrant The seat is padded and slightly curved round the sides which makes for a good head rest. Eliza finds it really comfortable (and the acid test; she fell asleep in it within about 10 minutes at The Baby Show) It also reclines really smoothly and easily even when your child is asleep in it (see above) Although it doesn’t fare so well as an city / urban pram for reasons I’ll come on to shortly, it was great on longer walks, through parks and on uneven pavements and roads. I imagine it will be very useful in colder weather too …and the not so good points It’s very heavy and I really struggle to pick it up, let alone carry it up and down stairs This means it’s tough to use when you live on the top floor, as well as making public transport tricky I don’t know if I’m just used to the tiny Bugaboo, but the back wheel span on the Moodd is huge, which means it’s hard to get through narrow doors and around shops. And while it can fit on the bus, it does take up most of the space It’s still fairly large even when it’s folded down (you’d need a big car boot). And some other thoughts: It fitted in a taxi with no problems, although the driver did have to help me to lift it in and out. There’s no danger of it falling over when you go round corners (this is as issue with the lightweight Maclaren) The tyres are inflatable, making it really smooth to sit and and great to push. It comes with a pump which is stored in the basket. And speaking of, the shopping basket is wide but very shallow, and as the bar of the pram cuts across the top so it’s difficult to put any big bags in it (and loose items aren’t particularly stable). Obviously this isn’t a deal breaker, but it does make your life a lot more difficult when you’re shopping A minor safety point, but there’s no wrist strap on the handle. What’s our overall verdict? The Quinny Moodd is a really strong, robust pram. You get a lot of pram for the money and features like the automatic unfold are really unusual and clever. It’s very easy to get up, down, change the seat round and put in recline. We were really impressed with the design, look and feel and how easy to use it was. The Maxi Cosi integration is really useful, as are the free adaptors. It’s not the most practical pram for city use or our current circumstances, due to the weight and size. It would be great if you go on a lot of long walks in the countryside, and I do think we’ll use it more when we move house and don’t have to cope with stairs. But if none of these issues are a factor – e.g. if you live in a house, on the ground floor, drive a car with a big boot, don’t have to use public transport – it’s definitely one to consider, especially as it’s so comfortable for babies and mine loved it. We were given a Quinny Moodd pram for the purposes of this review. Read my disclosure policy here. Make […]

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Silver Cross Wayfarer buggy launch, at the Ivy Club

Gillian — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 15:09:15 +0000

My breakfast yesterday was slightly different than normal, as I was invited by Silver Cross to the launch of its new Wayfarer pram and Simplicity car seat; no-one tried to flick cereal at me, for a change! It took place at the Club at The Ivy, in Covent Garden. You can read all about the pram and car seat over on my TalkMum post, but both looked really good. Along with what seems like 99.9% of people in my area, we have a Bugaboo, of course, and it’s fantastic, but if the Wayfarer had been out last year we would have seriously considered it (ticking all the major boxes of being light enough to cart up and down station steps and our stairs, small enough to get on public transport, and looking pretty). It even has a cup holder included as standard, which means you don’t have to buy one a few weeks later when you realise you absolutely can’t live without one. The new Wayfarer is an update of a 1980’s model, and there was even one of the original versions there as a comparison. It reminded me of this article from The Guardian about the evolution of everyday products including prams. And how brilliantly retro-elegant is The Ivy Club?

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Pregnancy week 25: a pretty strange couple of days

Gillian — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:12:06 +0000

This week started off fine; in fact, it was so unremarkable that I can’t remember anything interesting that happened in the first couple of days. However Wednesday evening changed all that, with the unwelcome arrival of more blood, worry, and panic. Apparently as this point what we should have done is call the midwife emergency pager, or gone straight up to Kings to get checked out. But as it was past 11pm, I was exhausted, and as the baby was kicking really strongly, Alex and I decided to sleep on it and get it checked out in the morning. After my usual great night’s sleep of waking at 1am, 2am and 4am (if anyone else tells me that’s nature’s way of ‘getting me ready for the baby’, I won’t be pleased) I finally got hold of a midwife at lunchtime. She directed me straight up to the Maternal Assessment Unit, after telling me off – in that lovely, maternally-concerned midwife way – for not going the night before. So off I went up to Denmark Hill again, feeling very vulnerable. The Maternal Assessment unit is an annex of the labour ward at the hospital where you can get looked at by medical staff if you have any sort of pregnancy problem post-20 weeks. The two times I’ve been now it’s always busy – I was there this time for over three hours before I was seen – but it’s understandable as it’s such a tiny place to deal with so many pregnant people, all of whom have to be hooked up to the foetal heart-rate monitors for at least half an hour. After getting all me and Baby C’s vital signs checked out, all seemed normal (one of the nurses stuck her head around the cubicle curtain to tell me that I had a ‘lovely baby heartbeat’, and the doctor told me I had a ‘nice high placenta’ – how are those for odd compliments?) The doctor told me I’m at a higher risk of bleeding anyway due to my injections, and if I’d gone in the night before they would have kept me in. However, as all seemed fine now then I could go home. Despite all the first trimester worry, and my various medical complications, I’ve really loved being pregnant, and bizarrely for someone as impatient as me, I’ve not wanted to wish it away. However that day, I just felt, for the first time, that I wanted it to be over and to have the baby out and safe. On Friday I must have been still feeling somewhat distracted, and somehow ended up somehow getting on the wrong bus to work, ending up at Marble Arch instead of Piccadilly. Bearing in mind I’ve taken the same route to work for a whole year, from exactly the same place, I have no idea how this happened. I then spent the morning trying not to burst into tears when anyone asked how I was. Self-pity city! To cheer me up, that evening, Alex and I went to look at prams in John Lewis (how my Friday nights have changed already, in the face of not being able to medicate problems with alcohol). I think we might now have actually made a decision on the one we want – plus it was funny to note all the other pregnant couples wandering around, looking equally as clueless as we were in the face of such expensive baby-carrying machinery.

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