- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Pennsylvania Babies
need some recs in the harrisburg/new cumberland/camp hill area
Hey ladies, looking for some recommendations for the following so I can start some research when I find some spare time! 
TIA!
- daycares (in-home or center)
- photographers (maternity/newborn pics so I can surprise hubby when he gets home)
- pediatricians
Also, if anyone wants to recomend a stroller and carseat, I'm all ears!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: need some recs in the harrisburg/new cumberland/camp hill area
daycare - we used Goddard in Mech off the Rossmoyne exit in the business park. $960/mo. maybe a little on the high side for the area but much cheaper than the other places we looked (Goddard Enola and Kinder Care Enola). TLC Learning Center on the Pike was nice and clean and a bit cheaper ($205/wk) but I didn't feel like they tried to teach the babies anything. Goddard has songs and books and things they read each day.
photographers - We used Jen Baltgalvis for our newborn pics bc I had a gift certificate but I highly recommend Scott Church. We used him for 5 month/holiday pics. You get your pictures digitally so even though the session fee is a bit more, it ends up being a lot cheaper in the end and he does amazing work.
pediatrician - We go to Heritage Pediatrics on the Pike near ABC. I have seen all the drs there with Jack and really like it. I have several friends who go there too and highly recommend it.
I have the Chicco Cortina. It's one of the only travel systems that gets good reviews (from my research). I have talked to a ton of people that have them (they seem to be everywhere I go) and everyone seems happy with it too. Even though we're only having one, I wanted the convenience of having the travel system where I could just pop Jack in and out of the car and into a stroller. He's gotten a lot more nap than he would have had I just had one that stays in the car and I had to take him out all the time. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't have the little notches in the bottom of the seat to be able to put it in the top part of the cart but that's really not that huge of a deal. If I was going and getting a lot of groceries, I'd just put him in the bjorn until he could sit up on his own.
Daycare - I'm no help; DH and I were able to work opposite shifts and haven't had a need for it yet
Photographers - No help here either lol. I just did my own and got pro pics done at Christmas when she was 3 months (and those were done by our wedding photog in NJ...)
Pediatrician - We went to Dr. Garcia of Tan and Garcia. They've been around a long time (one of my co-workers went to them when he was younger). Never had any problems with the Dr, but I was not a fan of the Camp Hill office (front desk people really). We switched to the Harrisburg (Union Deposit) location and I was much happier with the front desk there.
And we loved our Graco Metrolite travel system! The Metrolite stroller is so light for a full size stroller - I could close and lift it with one hand. I really loved the Graco systems in general, but the weight of the stroller really sold us on the one we got.
KahunaChic, I would love to see your pictures! You can PM me if that's easiest!
Thank you everyone else for your suggestions! They're great jumping off points for my research!
While I have no recommendations for the daycare or pedi questions, I CAN tell you that we just did maternity pics w/Kylene from Kylene Krotzer Photography (nestie kyandmatt) and the sneak peek we've seen so far are AMAZING. They're on her blog if you're interested in seeing them. Ky and Matt are also doing a newborn session w/us shortly after LO arrives, and DH and I cannot WAIT to see what they do for those. She's based out of Lancaster, but is willing to travel... just shoot her an email.
As for stroller/carseat, DH researched it and settled on the Chicco KeyFit for its safety ratings. We wanted a travel system, so we went w/the Chicco Cortina system - it's the KeyFit 30 infant seat and Cortina stroller. We obviously haven't used it yet, but we do have it set up, and have tried the car seat in the cars, as well as collapsing the stroller and trying it in the trunks. The stroller is, admittedly, a bit bulky, but that's to be expected w/a travel system stroller. The car seat is easy to put on the stroller and car seat base, and easy to remove from both, as well. Since both of us are tall, we are in LOVE with the adjustable handle height on the stroller. DH was also convinced after testing both the Graco and the Chicco strollers in-store that the Chicco felt sturdier... but then, his idea of checking for sturdiness was to shake things as hard as he could.
GL - the process of figuring all of this out (esp. baby gear!) can be overwhelming at times, that's for sure!
... every single day of forever.
First, congrats! It's been awhile since I checked in, but lots of surprises!
Since we're still in MD, no help for pediatricians, but we did have Sandy Wagerman of Lucky Ladybug Photography do our maternity and newborn session. I love, love our pictures. They are simply gorgeous and she was very reasonable to work with. She is out of Gettysburg.
We also have the Chicco KeyFit and Cortina travel system. We love it for all of the reasons that Ashlee already stated - the adjustable handle, very easy to collapse, snaps in nice, and for a travel system I do think it is one of the less bulkier ones. For the carseat though we went with the regular KeyFit, the 22lb vs. the 30 that Ashlee mentioned. We kept going back and forth, but finally settled on the regular since the KeyFit30 just felt so much more heavy and bulky to lug around. I think you can't go wrong with either. Thankfully, for us, Ella is small, so I'm pretty sure we have a long, long way to go to reach 22 lbs anyway
I don't have any suggestions for photographers or daycares. We have a few friends and family that do photography and I work out of Carlisle so his sitter is in that area.
I swear by my pediatrician they have been great. We go to Ryder, Barnes. They are outside of Mechanicsburg close to Bowmansdale exit of 15. Dr Barnes goes to church my IL's and he is the nicest person ever. Pretty short drive for us and we live in the Cedar Cliff area of Camp Hill, plus I don't have to fight the pike traffic