35 weeks pregnant - I don't think I need a stroller, and everyone is telling me I'm crazy

[imogenlily]

I'm pretty sure I can babywear all the time. Are there situations where it's really advantageous to have a stroller?

How do you explain this to people?

[Chamomile Girl]

Much of the equation is going to depend on the temperament of your child. If they fall asleep in the car will they transition easily to a wrap/sling? Some do some don't. If they don't than having the bucket pop into a stroller means you get time to yourself (sort of) while they baby sleeps.

Never, ever wake a sleeping baby.

[imogenlily]

Thanks! This seems like great advice, and fits with the approach I'm taking, which is "buy a stroller if it becomes apparent that I need one".

[MamaKickyPants]

We started out with no stroller and got one when DS was 4 mos. He ended up hating it for a while, but we've gotten lots of use out of it since he was about a year. No reason you can't wait to get a big purchase like a stroller.

[PatioGardener]

i still wear ds (12 months) and have never used a stroller.

[ramama]

We only got a stroller to tote around the crap.  Extra jackets, shopping bags, etc.  LOL, now I remember, we got it to tote stuff around in the airport when I was traveling with babe alone (a cheap umbrella stroller, so DD was probably about 6mo old, not a newborn).  It did come in handy after that, but I wore the actual baby all the time.

[Annie Mac]

We walk everywhere & have definitely found a stroller to be a useful hauling tool, for both baby & other items. I'm not sure how happy I would have been carrying a baby AND groceries. Depends on your lifestyle, I'd say. And like a PP said, you can always get one later. We didn't get ours until after the baby was born. I ended up having a c-section, which impacted the necessary baby items. Healing from surgery impairs one's mobility, and who knew you used abs for *everything*?!? For me, I wouldn't have gotten out of the house without the stroller, at least not as soon as I did. I also bought myself a sling during pregnancy, but found it hurt my shoulders with baby in it, and felt precarious. I had to do a lot of searching, post-baby, before I found the perfect one. Over the last year, I've used a combination of stroller, snugli-type carrier & backpack.

[BarefootScientist]

A couple situations where it's nice to have a stroller...some may have already been mentioned:

*If you're going to be carrying around lots of stuff or buy groceries or whatever.
*If you're going to be buying/trying on clothes. Kinda impossible to do while babywearing.
*If your baby is heavy and you're going on a long walk (my baby was really tiny so I never had this problem but I may have used a stroller more if he was heavy).
*If you're going somewhere like the zoo where you're going to be walking around all day (although at many zoos and similar places you can rent strollers or wagons too).

All that being said, I think your strategy of waiting to see if you actually need one sounds perfect. I had a jogging stroller right away that my mom gave me, but I didn't use it until DS was around 6 months old. Before that I wore him everywhere, or in certain situations carried him in the bucket seat (like carried him into church that way when he was sleeping). This time I do plan to get a stroller, maybe a sit-and-stand type one, because I don't think I can handle wearing the baby, keeping track of my older son, and carrying gear/groceries or anything really, all at the same time.

Good luck!

[cristeen]

I got a lot of judgement on that also. I did wind up buying one when DS was 3 mos and refusing the Moby. And then I heard about it even more.

Ultimately, a lot of it is about lifestyle, how and where you live. Now that DS is 19 mos, almost 30 lbs and as tall as a 3 yo, wearing him for long stretches is not feasible. I use the stroller to do grocery shopping, go to the gym (almost a mile), walk to the park, etc. We have a fair bit close by, so its easier to walk than drive.

[Chamomile Girl]

Originally Posted by cristeen 

I got a lot of judgement on that also. I did wind up buying one when DS was 3 mos and refusing the Moby. And then I heard about it even more.

Ultimately, a lot of it is about lifestyle, how and where you live. Now that DS is 19 mos, almost 30 lbs and as tall as a 3 yo, wearing him for long stretches is not feasible. I use the stroller to do grocery shopping, go to the gym (almost a mile), walk to the park, etc. We have a fair bit close by, so its easier to walk than drive.

This is a really important point too. From my house I can walk to the grocery store, post office, park, coffee shop, ice cream shop, etc etc... Wearing DS for a walk doesn't work anymore nor does dragging a slow, curious, sometimes darting-off toddler. So a stroller is great for neighborhood mobility. Plus strollers are a great space for toddlers to snack.

[goldenwillow]

We never bought a stroller.  I personally think it is too much gear to lug around.  DS flat refused to ride in one and still does.  Our neighbors bought us one because they thought we really needed one, sits in the shed.  I (now) sometimes wish he would, to save my neck a bit (fractured C6 & C7 a couple years ago in a MVA).  We have quite a few carriers that we have used over the past 22 months   Recently embraced our ERGO in the back carry these days. 

[laohaire]

Yeah, my mom thought that we were somehow making a *big mistake* by not purchasing a stroller prior to DD being born. Cause, you know, if one day I thought "hmm, a stroller might be more convenient" when DD was already 3 months or whatever, it would have been too late. I couldn't have possibly run to Walmart and bought a stroller and returned home within 20 minutes.

Sarcasm aside, it really does depend on a lot of factors. For us, we never ended up needing a stroller. My mom bought 3 or 4 that I can remember, and we used one of them once when she came to visit (but it was a total disaster, the wheels were awful) and another one another time just by ourselves (it was fine, but the Ergo would have been  fine too). DD liked the Ergo and she is a peanut so she was never heavy. Honestly, I still wear her in the Ergo maybe twice a year and she's 5 and a half. (Last time was in December, we walked to the Christmas tree lighting downtown but a stroller in the dark and a bit of snow up and down curbs and everything was not ideal, but the Ergo was perfect and even kept both of us warm - plus she could see better).

[hildare]

we didn't have one at first and i wore dd everywhere.  however, we ended up getting a really beat up second hand one for:

sitting her in before she could sit up so that i could work in the yard.  if you garden, it's invaluable for that. 

taking her to the park in extremely hot weather (which we only did a few times) when wearing was awful (but we live in GA)

my friend has a bit of land and used a jogging stroller (that has a front wheel that moves- an important feature) and she used it LOTS.  i envied it.

if you live where you can push the baby on a sidewalk (sadly we don't) it might be good to have.  we never took the stroller anywhere for her though.  last weekend i went to a music festival and i was the ONLY baby-wearer i saw, it was a field of strollers.  i thought about it, and the advantages are being able to feed the baby snacks (if they're older) it doesn't kill your back (if they're heavy) and you don't have to worry about sunburn b/c you have a shield.  babywearing can lead to sunburn, especially if your babe doesn't like a hat. 

if you're having a shower and people are wanting to GIVE you one, take them up on it. 

[Lauren82]

I get overheated very easily so I cannot tolerate wearing babies outside in 95 degree weather with 100% humidity for several hours. That's where a stroller with a nice shaded canopy comes in handy for me. :) Also, some toddlers get very squirmy and don't want to be worn. Rather than chase a toddler all over the place, the stroller keeps him safe when we are in places that roaming around is not an option.

[Daffodil]

If I were doing it over again, I wouldn't get a stroller until my baby was old enough for an umbrella stroller; then I'd pick up a cheap one.  There are times when a stroller is handy, but it only works if your baby will be content in it, and I couldn't count on my babies being happy in a stroller when they were little.  It's no fun when you end up carrying the baby and pushing the stroller too.  And there are so many places where a stroller is really inconvenient or just won't work - crowded stores, places with stairs, rough unpaved ground.  The sling was the thing I could count on to work everywhere.  Once my babies were a year old or so, they generally enjoyed riding in the stroller as long as it kept moving, and by that time they were heavier, too, so it was nice to be able to push them if I was going somewhere where I could use a stroller.  Unless you're really big and strong, I bet you'll find a stroller handy once your baby is a toddler (under certain circumstances - there are still all those places where a stroller doesn't work.)  But I wouldn't bother to get one now if I were you.

[JamieCatheryn]

A wagon worked nicely for us when ds was sitting up well and wearing him got less comfy. We haul 2 kids and stuff in it around the neighborhood, market, zoo, they walk part of the time and ride part of the time and I don't feel silly for pushing an empty stroller.

[July09Mama]

Sounds good! My dd was a summer baby too, and we didn't get a stroller until she was a year old, because it was too hot to wear a 1 year old all the time. It's also really nice to wait because the kind of stroller you might want for an older baby/toddler will probably be different from what you would choose for a newbie (we have a jogging stroller that doesn't hold a carseat and doesn't lay flat, so it wouldn't work for a baby, but it's great for a toddler). Anyway, it's not like they're that rare or something, you can always get one later!

Originally Posted by imogenlily 

Thanks! This seems like great advice, and fits with the approach I'm taking, which is "buy a stroller if it becomes apparent that I need one".

[megannt]

Originally Posted by BarefootScientist 

A couple situations where it's nice to have a stroller...some may have already been mentioned:

*If you're going to be carrying around lots of stuff or buy groceries or whatever.
*If you're going to be buying/trying on clothes. Kinda impossible to do while babywearing.
*If your baby is heavy and you're going on a long walk (my baby was really tiny so I never had this problem but I may have used a stroller more if he was heavy).
*If you're going somewhere like the zoo where you're going to be walking around all day (although at many zoos and similar places you can rent strollers or wagons too).

All that being said, I think your strategy of waiting to see if you actually need one sounds perfect. I had a jogging stroller right away that my mom gave me, but I didn't use it until DS was around 6 months old. Before that I wore him everywhere, or in certain situations carried him in the bucket seat (like carried him into church that way when he was sleeping). This time I do plan to get a stroller, maybe a sit-and-stand type one, because I don't think I can handle wearing the baby, keeping track of my older son, and carrying gear/groceries or anything really, all at the same time.

Good luck!

I agree with this. I did not a buy a stroller with my little one. When we got our car seat, my brother in law told me that the first thing I should do is find a stroller that fit the car seat because they are so heavy to lug around. But, you know what isn't heavy? A newborn without a carseat :) My DD was a summer baby, so she was little enough to wear comfortable all day long while we were out and about. We wore her through very hot weather with warm weather friendly wraps and a sling. We tend to stay home more during the winter, so we haven't got one until just now. I bought a cheap umbrella one at a garage sale for five dollars.

That being said, some babies do love to sleep in their carseats, so it might be nice to stroll a sleeping baby around, rather than lugging that carseat everywhere. But, you will know if you have one of thsoe babies when you have the baby and you can always get a stroller then. My baby had a deep seeded hatred for car seats :) I loved wearing her though - they are only that small for so long, so why not embrace it? Plus, baby carriers can go where no strollers can! :)

[Mom2M]

We bought a Graco frame for the carseat before she was born and I did use it for reasons previously mentioned because she tended to fall asleep immediately in the car so it was nice for short trips in and out of places/doctor appts/clothes trying. She always woke up when I took her out. Going for longer things like grocery shopping, walking in malls/fairs and things like that, I wore her and she would go back to sleep on me. For us, I don't think a more expensive stroller would have been useful at an early age but because the frame was inexpensive, it was worth it.
I do not like umbrella strollers because they don't have good support for their backs. We run/walk our dogs for a few miles and we bought a Bob jogging stroller (used thankfully, because it's very expensive) and it is amazing.
DD hardly ever sits in a stroller and it's so funny because when we do use it, she gets all excited and holds onto the bar laughing and kicking, especially when we run!

[sosurreal09]

DD is 18 m/o now and we have used our very expensive stroller ONCE and she screamed the whole time so we had to take her out lol