Urban mommas: What gear worked best for you?

Luna C

I'm trying to weigh our options between strollers and car seats, travel systems, etc. I'm a FTM and I'm really struggling to figure out what will work best for people like us who don't live in car-centric areas. 
Here's our situation:We live in downtown Philly, which is very pedestrian-friendly. We have a car, which we almost never use except for DHs commute to work. I'll be working from home, and plan to wear/carry the baby most of the time when I'm out running errands, etc. We walk virtually everywhere, including to do the grocery shopping (we just go more often and buy just what we can carry). We only use the car for visiting friends in the burbs or if we plan to buy a large item that's not convenient to carry home. We already bought a BOB stroller since we are both runners. These are my questions:
1. I'd like to buy one convertible car seat to save money, but everyone talks about how convenient the infant/portable seats are. But that's more for people in the 'burbs who are in and out of the car all the time, yes? I just can't picture myself lugging around a car seat in the city with a diaper bag and a bag of groceries.
2. Also, I know the BOB has an attachment for car seats, but I can't figure out if that's true for the convertibles or only the infant seats?
3. We can use the BOB as our sole stroller, right? I put it together and it handles great. I see no issues there, but would love to hear feedback from anyone else using one. 

FmrAFBrat

My dad lives in DC...so it's a lot different. You mainly take the subway.

Do you ever take cabs? I ask because convertibles are tricky to install for smaller babies (to get at right angle) & a BOB might not fit in the trunk of one. BOBs do have car seat adaptors for infant seats only but if you live in the city you probably won't need one.

If you don't take cabs I would get a Radian & no car seat adaptor. Maybe splurge on a nice umbrella stroller to take in restaurants and such in case baby doesn't like being worn.

AKB090609

Strollers that use adapters are only for infant seats, if you get a convertible you leave the car seat in the car. You can use just the BOB (I'd get an infant insert for the beginning and have it fully reclined) and a convertible car seat (I LOVE the NextFit, it has great limits like the radian suggested above). I would also look into a nice carrier I liked a wrap type carrier in the beginning (my preference is the K'tan) and then a soft structured carrier after 3-4 months (I liked the beco Gemini better than the ergo or boba I tried).

One thing to think about is a parent facing stroller, I wore my baby a lot in the beginning, but as she got older it became difficult for longer amounts of time, she wanted to see more than she could from the carrier and became heavy. We recently got a parent facing stroller and we both like to look at each other as we walk and talk about what we see and where we are going.

JilllyBean

I live in a big city. I would never go without an infant seat. We walk to go out to eat a lot but a lot of the restaurants don't have room for a big stroller next to the table. We use our infant seat in the booth or they will bring over a stand for it. My baby does not like to be worn so you never know if yours will. Plus you don't need to wake baby up that way. We do use our uppababy seat when we are just walking or walking to the grocery so that he isn't always in his carseat. Also if you walk over to friends houses you will have no where to put baby down. Really the infant seat is most useful as a place to put your baby when they can't sit up yet.

Luna C

Ah! I hadn't thought about restaurants, etc. @Jillybean. That does make sense. So, I guess in our case we would probably be using the infant seat a lot ... just not actually in the car most of the time. 

Thanks for the input. 

FmrAFBrat

Luna C said:

Ah! I hadn't thought about restaurants, etc. @Jillybean. That does make sense. So, I guess in our case we would probably be using the infant seat a lot ... just not actually in the car most of the time. 

Thanks for the input. 

When we visit my dad some we use cabs & public transit a lot. My recs for that would be the Graco Snugride (easy seat belt install) for your infant seat...and it works with your BOB. For a convertible down the line the Safety 1st Guide 65 or Evenflo SureRide are easy to travel with for cabs (if you ever use them or travel in general-like on a plane). If the BOB gets cumbersome Safety 1st makes an umbrella stroller at BRU that is compatible with all brands of car seats, that I think would a better deal for you than a SnG (even though I love ours). You should be able to find a Snugride for under $100 on sale too. The Radian I recommended earlier would last a long time if it was your only seat, but it is pricey. For your needs I'd go with the other seats.

Robi1

JilllyBean said:

I live in a big city. I would never go without an infant seat. We walk to go out to eat a lot but a lot of the restaurants don't have room for a big stroller next to the table. We use our infant seat in the booth or they will bring over a stand for it. My baby does not like to be worn so you never know if yours will. Plus you don't need to wake baby up that way. We do use our uppababy seat when we are just walking or walking to the grocery so that he isn't always in his carseat. Also if you walk over to friends houses you will have no where to put baby down. Really the infant seat is most useful as a place to put your baby when they can't sit up yet.

This totally depends on your lifestyle and how you handle your baby. We live in the suburbs and drive everywhere, but only have convertible car seats, and no stroller. If we go to a restaurant, we hold the baby. If we go to a store or somewhere walking, we wear her or carry her. If we go to  a friend's house, we don't "have no where to put baby down" - we hold her or we put her down on a blanket on the floor. Babies don't always need a containment device. 

You'll only be able to use the infant seat for 6-12 months generally, so it's much more cost effective to skip it, especially if you don't drive much. You'll have a summer baby too, it looks like, so you won't have to worry about keeping baby out of the winter air. Just some alternate thoughts!