Buying a Stroller

With the crib, changing table, and other nursery furniture purchased and installed, we next focused our efforts on finding a stroller.  We quickly became overwhelmed by the options!  Umbrella strollers, jogging stollers, luxury strollers, travel systems, etc.  Where to begin?

Last May when we were in San Francisco for a weekend, we saw a couple with this stroller out and about.  Matt was impressed.  So, long before I ever got pregnant, Matt was doing stroller research!  After watching countless stroller reviews on YouTube and reading dozens of stroller reviews on Baby Gizmo, we came up with a list of things that really mattered to us:

• lightweight -- something less than 22ish pounds.
• easy to collapse -- we don't want to regularly struggle with baby and stroller at the same time.
• washable fabric -- this requirement was key!  Babies are messy!
• reversible seat -- we want baby to face us for at least the first several months before taking a look at the wild world in front of the stroller.
• seat and pram components -- we plan to use the pram (bed) until the baby outgrows it, moving on to the seat; one stroller with both options.  Also, the pram can function as a portable moses basket, eliminating the need to buy a moses basket or portable crib, at least for the first several months.
• big wheels/good suspension -- we live in a neighborhood surrounded by hills and crappy sidewalks but we don't want that to stop us from exploring with baby!
• weight restriction -- something that will last until baby is at least 45+ pounds, eliminating the need to buy a replacement for at least a few years.
• compatible with a carseat -- preferably compatible with mulitple brands of carseats since we don't yet know which carseat we'll buy.

We quickly realized that the only strollers that meet all of these requirements are considered luxury strollers and cost anywhere from $500 to $1000+!!  Matt's attraction to the Stokke was excellent foreshadowing!! The bummer about luxury strollers (besides the cost) is that none of them are suitable for running.  We had originally hoped to buy only 1 stroller:  an everyday stroller and a jogging stroller in one.  Turns out they don't make those, at least not for use with a newborn and, really, jogging strollers can't be used with baby until around 6 months.  With that in mind, we decided to wait to worry about a jogging stroller until much later. 

The brands we researched included:

• Mutsy
• Stokke
• Uppa Baby
• Bugaboo
• BOB
• Mountain Buggy
• Phil & Teds
• Quinny

The brand that kept coming out on top over and over was the coveted Bugaboo line.  While we were in Boston, Matt's parents took us to what is considered one of the best baby gear stores in the country.  There we were able to test-drive almost all of the strollers we'd researched.  And, again, the Bugaboo came out on top. It's lightweight with incredible suspension, has multiple seat/sleep options, comes with reversible handlebar (that way you don't even have to reverse the seat!), and is really cool looking.  Unfortunately, only 2 of the Bugaboo strollers met all of our requirements and they are the most expensive 2:  the Frog and the Cameleon.   The Bee, althought incredibly lightweight and a great travel stroller, didn't come with as many seat/sleep options as the others and isn't nearly as pretty to look at (yes, we're shallow).

Since there was no way we were going to pay $800-$1000 for a stroller, the hunt for a used Bugaboo Frog or Cameleon was on!  To make a long story short, I must have contacted 20+ sellers on Craigslist before we finally got lucky.  Friday we brought home our new-to-us Bugaboo Cameleon (made possible by a generous birthday contribution from my parents).  I washed all of the fabric and reassembled everything Friday night.  It rides like a dream!  We're very pleased with out purchase. 

With pram from top angle

With pram from side

With seat flat from side

With seat upright from front

I don't love the tan color combination but Bugaboo (and Babies-R-Us) both sell the fabric set in other color combinations.  

Next on our list:  carseats (Bugaboo is compatible with Graco, Maxi Cosi, and Peg Perego)!

19 week update -- more details

First, let me say I'm fine and everything with Baby Tray is perfect.

One night in Boston, I woke up in the middle of the night with this intense abdominal pain centered around my belly button.  After it didn't lessen over the course of a few hours, I called the 24 hour nurse help line through Matt's awesome insurance.  They recommended I head to the emergency room.  I wasn't keen on getting up in the middle of the cold, snowy Boston night to ask Matt's parents to drive us to the hospital (although, I know they would have done so happily), so I decided to seek a second opinion.

Our OBs office has a 24 hour message service.  You can call, leave a message and, if it's an urgent matter, one of the OBs from the practice will call back right away.  So, at around 3am east coast time, I had a nice long conversation with an OB (not mine) about my pain.  She said it didn't sound like appendicitis or a gall stone because the pain was NOT centered on one side of my abdomen.  She asked a lot of other questions and eventually said that it was probably just an irritated gall bladder and indigestion.  She recommended I take Tums or Maalox.  I took some Tums and was eventually able to fall back asleep.  I felt okay the next morning.  However, throughout the rest of our time on the east coast, I continued to have the same indigestion issues after meals.

Since returning to Seattle, I'm happy to report that almost all of my morning sickness symptoms are gone!  I have a much healthier appetite and I'm not experiencing any nausea.  I still gag a little in the morning when I first wake up and I absolutely must get something substantial in my belly within about 60 minutes, but I'm honestly like a new person.  I'm not experiencing the same indigestion after meals as previously.  I also have a lot more energy overall.  Hallelujah!  After 3 months straight of feeling like sh*t, I'm glad it appears to be behind me. I sort of feel like I'm coming out of a depression.  For 3 months all I did was come home (maybe go to the gym first), eat, feel sick to my stomach, go to sleep, wake up, feel like crap, repeat.   All of those poor women who are sick all 9 months!  I truly cannot even imagine. 

I've started feeling little tickles from the inside of my belly recently.  It's still sporadic and hard to notice.  At yesterday's ultrasound appointment we were able to see just how much Baby Tray moves around.  I'm glad I don't feel everything just yet.  Both the ultrasound tech and our OB are amazed at how active s/he is!

We think we may have figured out Tray's sex from the appointment.  I'm sure we're wrong.  We've seen all of 2 ultrasounds ever, that hardly makes us experts!! We told the tech we didn't want to find out and she said nothing, but there was one point that we thought we could make out some identifying features!  I'm not saying any more than that because we really don't know and I really want it to be a surprise.

Finally, random story overheard at the ultrasound office yesterday.  As we're waiting in the reception room at the ultrasound office, I hear this woman talking to her partner on her cell phone.  This was the conversation:  "I'm at the ultrasound office.  You're not going to believe this.  {She takes a deep breath}.  They think we're having twins.  They must have missed it the first time. I need you to get here as soon as you can."  The totally wild part is that she looked bigger than me, so it's possible she's like 18+ weeks and just finding out that she's having twins.  What a shock!

19 week ultrasound

Today we went in for what they call the 20 week ultrasound.  I was really nervous going into this appointment because I'd read so much about bad news being delivered at the 20 week ultrasound.  The purpose of this appointment is to really take a lot of time and look over all of baby's parts:  fingers, toes, bones, organs, facial features, etc.  If we had wanted to find out the sex of the baby, this would have been the appointment.  Fortunately, we're still on the same page about wanting to be surprised! 

Here are some photos!

Baby profile at 19 weeks

Baby foot!

Baby sucks thumb!

Huge relief to know everything is perfect with Baby Tray!!

In other news, my morning sickness is almost completely gone!  I still experience the occasional gag in the morning but I'm like a new person otherwise! 

19 weeks!

Back in sunny Seattle and it feels so good!

 

East Coast Vacation

There may be radio silence here for the next week.  We're in Boston visiting Matt's family.  We're headed to NYC on Tuesday to visit Wendy & Mike and Craig & Sam. 

Today was a beautiful day, sunny but cold.  With wind chill, it was probably below 20 degrees.  I felt like I was waddling around like a snowman between my growing belly and layers of clothing.  I've outgrown all of my jeans now.  Luckily, my former boss and friend, Helene, surprised me with a black Bella Band which I have been wearing for the last several days.  I've since purchased two more bands in different colors.  It feels kind of funny walking around with my pants unzipped and unbuttoned but at least I can still wear my regular clothes for a while longer.  :)

There's another new addition to the nursery, purchased on a whim late last week.  After looking through tons and tons of photos of real nurseries, there were two in particular I felt incredibly inspired by:  this one and this one.   I absolutely love the animal head hanging from the wall in the first nursery.  Which is why I had to snag one of these after seeing them hanging in Anthropologie last week:

We decided on the zebra head after reading that babies are most attracted to the high contrast of black and white.  Hopefully the baby likes a jungle theme since that's what seems to be transpiring in her/his room! 

17 week bump

Here I am at 17 weeks!  I swear if I'm not wearing tight fitting clothing you can't tell I'm pregnant at all.  But I'm tired of looking plump instead of preggo so today I flaunted the bump.  Pardon the slightly haggard look (I'm ready for the sickness to be gone)! 

This is one on my fabulous new maternity dresses from Asos Maternity! 

Nursery Progress!

We made significant progress on the nursery over the course of the last few weekends!  We painted!  We hung picture molding!  We assemembled furniture!  We started to decorate!  Here's the play-by-play.

Over the course of a 3-day weekend, we were able to paint and hang picture molding.  I was totally beat by the end but we're so happy with how it turned out.  We have vaulted ceilings throughout our 3rd floor, so painting was a challenge.  We knew we couldn't paint everything (walls and ceiling) so we had to come up with a way to divide the room and make it more paintable.  We were working with obstacles of various heights around the room (a window, two door frames, and a very funky corner with a low ceiling).  In the end, we decided to paint one entire wall all the way up to the ceiling.  This required renting a ladder from Home Depot, which was annoying and costly but worth it.  After we painted the first wall, we drew a line around the room at the approximate height we'd later hang picture molding.  We painted everything beneath the line (3 walls total) in a color one shade lighter than the first wall.  Finally, we hung the picture molding at the seam where the new paint met the old paint.  Unfortunately, we worked so hard and were so busy, we didn't take photos of the room before we started moving in furniture. Boo!

This past weekend, we moved and assembled all of the furniture we've acquired for our baby.  We bought our crib off Craigslist.  It's an older IKEA model that is no longer sold in the US.  The changing table is actually a West Elm Parsons Desk we got for a steal (a mere $100) last time we were in PDX. The glider is also from Craigslist.  We already owned the dresser and had been saving it in hopes of using it in the nursery. 

The view from the doorway.  Those aren't the curtains we'll be using! (Note the funky corner with low ceiling in upper left of picture.) 

A better view of the paint color.  We ended up going for a seafoam green instead of the white/blue hue I had originally chosen.  Wise decision!

The picture molding -- oh so worth the hours of brainstorming that went into this solution. 

We're nowhere near done decorating but we've started adding some sweet little details.  We purchased the elephant fabric while we were in Japan.  It comes from a famous Japanese pop artist.  The fabric is sort of a combination of two original works titled Smiling Elephants and Flying Elephants.  I need to buy an artist canvas to stretch the fabric, but here's a quick shot of it pinned to the molding:

We were originally going to paint the dresser but we recently found the most adorable little drawer knobs.  It's still possible we'll decide to paint but I'm liking the dresser exactly as it is.  I think once we add more color in the form of bedding and art, the wood will blend nicely. 

A close-up.  Hoo!  Hoot!

Little owls.  All lined up.

I'm really glad that we decided to go with a wood crib.  I think it helps warm up the space and makes it so everything isn't too matchy matchy.   

So, that's the status of the nursery for now.  We're looking forward to the arrival of our bedding and another piece of art we purchased for the walls.  The best part and the most satisfying feeling is that we both absolutely love the way it's turning out.  We both agree that we love walking into Tray's room.  It's so calming and bright.  We're proud of what we've accomplished!

Somebody went shopping!

Uh-oh, who went shopping?  Tray.  Tray went shopping. 

Shopping for gender-neutral clothing is proving to be difficult.  Two of these items came from the girl's section and one came from the boy's section.  Can you tell which item came from which section?