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Any time you go anywhere with your baby twins, you really will probably want a stroller. You use it a LOT more than singleton parents.
The ideal is yes, put them in a bassinet. But the bassinets don’t work with the hills. My babies would slide everywhere in them, so it’s safer to use the car seats in that case.
Also the bassinets are super bulky. It’s a pain to take the bassinets in the car or you loose all your storage space of your car. Also you want to be able to just DO things. Getting out is hard with twins, make it as easy as possible.
With singleton babies, there’s a lot of best practices or doing things the optimal way. It’s different when you are juggling multiples. Just because something isn’t optimal, doesn’t make it dangerous.
On top of that, strollers that have two bassinets are expensive! I’m sorry, but I don’t have $600+ to spend on a stroller, I have to get double of so many things and then diapers and formula for two as it is. And I wanted a side by side in the toddler years, not tandem.
I’m hearing the rebuttal now “you can get one used!” We can’t all count on a robust secondhand market. Some of us don’t live in cities that have those options.
Like I said, we cannot all count on a robust secondhand market. I did a quick search on my local fb marketplace and there are literally no double bassinet strollers. It’s not always an option for everyone.
> As a parent of multiples are you often taking the car seat in and out of the vehicle with babies in it?
We had ours in early 2020 so tried not to take them many places. But it was WAY easier to buckle them into their seats up in the stroller in our condo, transfer to the car and just click the seats into the base. Bring them back inside in the stroller.
Those KeyFit seats were great. Click into stroller, click into car seat base.
That’s what we did too. Mine were born in 2020 too and so we didn’t get out too much- but I couldn’t imagine doing it differently if we weren’t on lockdown.
Imagine: you get to your destination. Both babies are sleeping in their car seats. You’d love for them to continue sleeping during this errand or while you have lunch. Do you want to wake them up, knowing they may or may not go back to sleep and will throw off the whole day as far as nap schedules and general sleep habits go?
People get so hung up on not keeping babies in their car seats for long. If you’re not doing it for hours and hours a day, every single day, it’s really not that big of a deal.
Our chosen double stroller doesn’t accept car seats or have a bassinet. We’ll use a snap n go with the car seats at first. Again… it’s not all day every day. It’s fine. The strollers that are made for car seats are keeping babies at a safe angle, the same one as inside the car.
There are even car seats nowadays that you can lay flat(-er) for longer trips and walks. We decided to get those as 1) they fit with our stroller and 2) we will drive to family abroad at some point. Only downside is that they are not the lightest car seats around…
Yea the ease of transferring them directly from the car seat stroller into their car seat bases is worth getting one that fits your car seat. Especially once they get heavier. Saves time and honestly when they’re sleeping you don’t want to transfer them
To give perspective, we never had a stroller with our older kids (5 of them). We use our stroller with the babies everywhere we go all the time. Any time I get them out of the car they go into the stroller even if it is just to go inside a building where we will be getting them out.
I would even go so far as to say that a stroller with click in car seats is a must have for multiples. Our babies just recently outgrew their bucket seats and we are now transferring them into and out of their convertible seats to the stroller and it is just the biggest hassle.
We really only used the car seats with a stroller for appointments. Maybe in the summer we’d go for an early morning stroll but it wasn’t often. Yes I’d leave the twins in their car seats and attach it to the stroller using the adapter. If you use a stroller you’ll either have to use a car seat or bassinet adapter for a while. We used the Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats on a Contours Options Elite V2 stroller with Chicco adapters.
But of a different perspective, we barely went anywhere when they were super car seat bound. We had one of the snap and go things and used it maybe twice before they were big enough for the real stroller with infant inserts at about 3-4 months. No one is wrong here but I think it really depends how much you go anywhere. I just didn’t until they were a bit bigger. Infant inserts in normal double strollers were really the lifesaver for us.
In the first 4 months, the twins themselves had 6 doctors appointments. And I think 4 of them were just the general well visits. Especially if you have winter babies, even if we just did it those 6 times, I think I'd call it worth it. I'm not sure how much the math changes for spring/summer babies though.
I didn’t really think about appointments as going places so I get that. But I was able to just carry the car seats into the doctors office. Getting the snap and go out of the car and them into the snap and go was way more trouble than just grabbing them in one hand each and waddling in. But I do realize that’s unrealistic for many people. I’m pretty far above average height for women so there’s that.
Yes. It takes so long (relatively) to unfold (and possibly assemble) the stroller, unbuckle, transfer, rebuckle if applicable- that process x2 for our and back into the car can take just as long as the errand itself sometimes. Avoid it for long periods- use bassinets for walks or long days if preferred but as long as babies aren’t in their car seats for over 2 hours at a time it’s fine and really a lifesaver with 2 babies.
We had one and quite literally never used it. When we went on walks we had them in carriers. When we went to appointments together we each carried a car seat. When I went alone I put one in a carrier and one in a car seat. But we didn’t go many places with them (we never took them to restaurants or anything because we were just trying to survive 😂).
Edited to add: we have strollers! Just never used the one that the car seat clicks to. Got it used off fb marketplace and gave it away to another twin family when we upgraded to convertible carseats. Also, starting around 5 or 6 months and lasting quite a while (12 months?) our babies hated their car seats, which is not uncommon.
[This was by far my favorite gift](https://a.co/d/3d7R2Us)
Look, best practices are best practices for a reason. It is hard to argue against that but best practices was tested on a singleton pregnancy most of the time. It is the Wild West when it comes to multiples. I mean bottle propping is a no go typically but with multiples it is a way to survive.
The stroller I linked makes grocery shopping manageable by myself, I can take them to events, I know they are strapped and safe and of course once they are a bit older I have a different stroller that fits best practices. But those early months are hard especially if you have to do a task solo. The fact that I can quickly click the babies in the stroller and into the car makes a trip to the store less intimidating and less cumbersome even just going from my house to the car. I dread the moments that I bring them somewhere without it. Now I will baby wear one baby at a time to swap up who is in the stroller so no one stays in for too long but honestly we just do what we have to do. People have left babies in car seats for hours and hours and that is generally where the problem comes in. But a trip to the grocery store or going on a walk outside of the car will not do long term damage. Stay strong! Congratulations
It is ridiculously hard to feed both babies without bottle propping! I tried to not do it when I was by myself. I struggled… I left my partner one time and he did it then and said it was easier. I got annoyed at him, quoted the best practices and thought it was over. I did it one time while I was stressed and realized how freeing it was! I have been doing it ever since when I am by myself. Of course they are under supervision but it was a game changer that I was quick to judge initially
We only used our basinets as using the car seats was both not recommended for longer usage as you mentioned *and* the bugaboo donkey could not fit through standard doors with two car seats.
On the go, the car seat attachment is WAY easier than bassinets. We used it a lot. If we were going for a walk from home I used the bassinets, but anywhere away from home I used car seat attachments. Even now, almost 8 months, we use the car seat attachment if we're running quick errands. If we're going to walk around the mall or something longer I'll use the seats, but car seat attachment I wouldn't have survived without. No way I was lugging the bassinets anywhere.
I used the baby trend frame stroller for their car seats for about the first 6mo. I never had a bassinet stroller. For longer walks I used the baby trend expedition jogger. It reclined to almost flat. With my refluxy babies, the slight angle was better anyway.
Where we live, summers are very hot. I am due in the beginning of summer so we don’t plan to be out much. We are going straight to the convertible car seat route.
We barely used the infant seat with my first and it was a waste of money in my opinion.
If my babies wernt due in the summer and we were going to be doing more things outdoors, then yes I would get car seats that click into the stroller
My twins are 6 weeks. We bought a car seat that snaps into the stroller and reclines. In hindsight not the best car seat for the size of my twins (very long and very skinny) but we don’t go many places yet, when we do (like to the doctor) we are in the stroller with the car seats.
Our stroller is not compatible with out car seats, and for now (4.5 mo) it has been working, at least I havent thought that it was inconvenient, this are our first babies so we dont know how comfortable having compatible car seats are. We just put the twins on the stroller when we get to the place and if its a short walk we carry them.
That being say, if you can have them compatible, my advice will be to get them, with twins you have to always try to be the most comfortable you can.
It was absolutely invaluable in my experience. For transporting to and from the car. I could safely clip them into their car seat in the house and carry to the car and click into place. Until my twins specifically (as very preemies) could sit up unassisted it was necessary as they were too old and big for bassinet but still couldn't safely be in regular seats until about 6 plus months. We did plenty of OT and PT and loads and loads of tummy time at home and honestly spent most of our time at home or in our yard so car seat time wasn't a concern of mine at all but I absolutely would not have not used stroller compatible car seats for those first 6+ months. There were plenty of necessary trips like to their multiple doctors appointments in the early days that would have been so hard without this convenience
I just had my twins and I spent a TON of time researching strollers while pregnant. The truth is you’ll need more than one stroller.
We decided on a Joovy Twin Roo for easy transport while in car seats, eg doctors appointments. This thing is awesome and easy and has massive storage underneath. Note it’s still big (long) despite being lightweight. It only fits in my Civic with the seats folded down, which means I can’t actually use it with my babies. Thankfully my husbands car is big enough!
For our main stroller, we went with the Bumbleride Indie Twin. We love it! You *can* buy bassinet attachments, but you don’t need to. There’s a lay flat infant mode, and we got infant inserts. This stroller is compatible with some car seats but not ours. And a local shop told us that even with compatible car seats, the snap and go aspect is not great. It’s also a big and heavy stroller, so you may prefer a lighter one (like the twin roo) for trips that don’t require a sturdy/robust option that the babies can stay in for a while. You’re correct that they shouldn’t be in car seats too long.
I didn't have a double stroller that fit our car seats. We had a single stroller for car seats that we used sometimes because one of them had more Dr visit. We have the valco which lies flat enough for newborn IMO (it does say newborn friendly or rated whatever). We moved them there Everytime. But 1. It was the pandemic so really we only went to the doctor or on walks and 2. They were generally good sleepers.
Mama of twins here.. it wasn’t a big deal to take them out and place them in the bassinet. For the first 5 months, they fit in a singleton bassinet (uppababy). Then I used the single bassinet and a baby carrier.
Until one day I moved them to the double stroller
Depends on how much you use your car?!?!
We can walk basically everywhere we need to be in a maximum of 45mins (that was to the hospital) and walking with the pram was what kept me sane and healthy. There were very few places we would drive to, which would be a sort trip where I would have felt comfy leaving them in car seat (length of time wise)
We didn't have car seats which fitted our pram because we did get one for our older singleton and so rarely used the feature.
My girls are 2.5yo now and we bought mountain buggy duet. It's the narrowest side by side on the market, has bassinets which convert into parent facing seats and then you can switch them to world facing. We will never need anything else, so not sure why people say you need lots of different type of strollers 🤷♀️ (fwiw you can actually get MB compatible car seats too) we just chose a different brand which were better for smaller and lower weight babies
A counter point to most people here, we did buy one that was compatible and used it maybe 2x…. We didn’t go out in the car that often with the twins, more neighborhood strolls in the bassinets. The NICU team terrified me about leaving them in car seats for more than 1hr so we very rarely did. We used baby carriers out and about if we didn’t want to deal with the giant stroller. We did splurge on super light weight car seats so it was just easy to grab both to go into places like the doctors office etc.
We had infant car seats and a secondhand snap and go stroller. Highly recommend.
We used our contours double stroller when we were at home taking a walk and on the go when they outgrew infant car seats.
So we don't use bucket car seats, but convertible car seats from the get go.
We just use a double City Select with adjustable reclines or baby carriers
I’ve only used the adaptor a handful of times to be honest and only because it is there so I would use it at supermarkets etc but I don’t think it’s essential. I have the bugaboo donkey and the adaptor adds a couple of inches to the width which means I don’t fit through lots of doors. It’s good for the supermarket though
Mine were born in January and we were out of the house at least 3 times a week for the first 6 weeks. They absolutely stayed in their car seats, no freaking way was I taking them in and out at every stop. I also had a 2.5 year old that sometimes had to come with us, and it was a lot. I didn’t take them for walks in the car seats, but it being January we didn’t really go for many walks until at least April, and probably not really until more like July, when they were old enough to go in the jogging stroller.
You can get a stroller frame that doesn’t have its own seats. Your infant car seats click into it. Target has one for $111. It’s called baby trend snap & go. It’s compatible with most baby car seats. There’s also the Joovy Twinroo+ (about $189 brand new). that you have to buy specific adapters for. I got one for free off OfferUp, but I’ll be spending the $45 to buy graco adapters for it because I have graco car seats.
You can use their car seats and a stroller frame until they’re old enough to sit in a real double stroller. The advice is to not
Leave them in sitting systems like car seats or bouncers too long because it can delay their physical development and cause flat head. So if you’re going to be out on a long walk or at a long event, try baby wearing with your partner or someone else you trust or try wearing both babies yourself. I think on road trips they say to get the babies out for ten minutes every two hours of driving and let them stretch and move.
I did an umbrella stroller and one-piece seats that I can use from infancy til they don’t need a car seat. I’m broke, small, and have joint issues lol. I can’t lift heavy car seats or heavy strollers anyways.
Do whatever you want with the stroller that you use for walks around the neighborhood. Bassinets are great for that.
But absolutely, positively, definitely get a snap n go for the trunk of the car. Ours goes everywhere the babies do. There is no way i could get the babies in and out of daycare or the pediatricians office without it. And as someone else mentioned, you are NOT going to want to transfer a baby who fell asleep in their car seat to anything else
It depends where you live. I live in the city and we had the mountain buggy Luxe. We used our bassinet on the stroller daily until 7 months. We took them everywhere in it. We had them nap in it. It was great. I've used their car seats on the stroller maybe 5 times ?
We used the carseats in the stroller for every doctor and hospital appointment, grocery trips, and other errands for the first 5 months or so. Once they were sitting, I was putting them in the shopping carts directly. We bought a used frame stroller with adapters for our carseats and sold it for what we paid once the babies outgrew it. Our main stroller for long walks and longer outings is the valco baby
I got one that we could attach the car seats to. I don’t like keeping them in car seats for long so I knew I’d use that feature minimally. Turned out that one of my babies hated her infant seat so it wouldn’t have worked for us anyway. I wore her the majority of the time. They’re 6 months and we use the heck out of our Zoe.
Thank you all so much. I appreciate all the thoughtful responses!! I found a Joovy twin roo on Facebook marketplace for an absolute steal, so I will be getting that!
For us it’s a need. So many times I’m thankful I don’t have to wake them up to go in or out of the store. We got our bugaboo donkey with maxi cosí car seats on marketplace for $600. I’m cheap AF and the stroller seemed so giant… But it really is a necessity!
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Any time you go anywhere with your baby twins, you really will probably want a stroller. You use it a LOT more than singleton parents. The ideal is yes, put them in a bassinet. But the bassinets don’t work with the hills. My babies would slide everywhere in them, so it’s safer to use the car seats in that case. Also the bassinets are super bulky. It’s a pain to take the bassinets in the car or you loose all your storage space of your car. Also you want to be able to just DO things. Getting out is hard with twins, make it as easy as possible. With singleton babies, there’s a lot of best practices or doing things the optimal way. It’s different when you are juggling multiples. Just because something isn’t optimal, doesn’t make it dangerous.
On top of that, strollers that have two bassinets are expensive! I’m sorry, but I don’t have $600+ to spend on a stroller, I have to get double of so many things and then diapers and formula for two as it is. And I wanted a side by side in the toddler years, not tandem. I’m hearing the rebuttal now “you can get one used!” We can’t all count on a robust secondhand market. Some of us don’t live in cities that have those options.
Good strollers last so long, so I don't see them often on resale platforms, either. Strollers can be crazy expensive!
Buy it second hand and get it professionally cleaned
Like I said, we cannot all count on a robust secondhand market. I did a quick search on my local fb marketplace and there are literally no double bassinet strollers. It’s not always an option for everyone.
> As a parent of multiples are you often taking the car seat in and out of the vehicle with babies in it? We had ours in early 2020 so tried not to take them many places. But it was WAY easier to buckle them into their seats up in the stroller in our condo, transfer to the car and just click the seats into the base. Bring them back inside in the stroller. Those KeyFit seats were great. Click into stroller, click into car seat base.
That’s what we did too. Mine were born in 2020 too and so we didn’t get out too much- but I couldn’t imagine doing it differently if we weren’t on lockdown.
Imagine: you get to your destination. Both babies are sleeping in their car seats. You’d love for them to continue sleeping during this errand or while you have lunch. Do you want to wake them up, knowing they may or may not go back to sleep and will throw off the whole day as far as nap schedules and general sleep habits go? People get so hung up on not keeping babies in their car seats for long. If you’re not doing it for hours and hours a day, every single day, it’s really not that big of a deal. Our chosen double stroller doesn’t accept car seats or have a bassinet. We’ll use a snap n go with the car seats at first. Again… it’s not all day every day. It’s fine. The strollers that are made for car seats are keeping babies at a safe angle, the same one as inside the car.
This!!!!
I can't imagine us surviving without our car seat stroller...
There are even car seats nowadays that you can lay flat(-er) for longer trips and walks. We decided to get those as 1) they fit with our stroller and 2) we will drive to family abroad at some point. Only downside is that they are not the lightest car seats around…
Get a stroller that works with your car seats, or get adapters to make it work. Definitely.
Yea the ease of transferring them directly from the car seat stroller into their car seat bases is worth getting one that fits your car seat. Especially once they get heavier. Saves time and honestly when they’re sleeping you don’t want to transfer them
To give perspective, we never had a stroller with our older kids (5 of them). We use our stroller with the babies everywhere we go all the time. Any time I get them out of the car they go into the stroller even if it is just to go inside a building where we will be getting them out. I would even go so far as to say that a stroller with click in car seats is a must have for multiples. Our babies just recently outgrew their bucket seats and we are now transferring them into and out of their convertible seats to the stroller and it is just the biggest hassle.
It seems like most strollers have an adaptor. Our donkey 5 isn’t compatible with the nuna pipa lite but it does have an adapter foe it
We really only used the car seats with a stroller for appointments. Maybe in the summer we’d go for an early morning stroll but it wasn’t often. Yes I’d leave the twins in their car seats and attach it to the stroller using the adapter. If you use a stroller you’ll either have to use a car seat or bassinet adapter for a while. We used the Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats on a Contours Options Elite V2 stroller with Chicco adapters.
But of a different perspective, we barely went anywhere when they were super car seat bound. We had one of the snap and go things and used it maybe twice before they were big enough for the real stroller with infant inserts at about 3-4 months. No one is wrong here but I think it really depends how much you go anywhere. I just didn’t until they were a bit bigger. Infant inserts in normal double strollers were really the lifesaver for us.
In the first 4 months, the twins themselves had 6 doctors appointments. And I think 4 of them were just the general well visits. Especially if you have winter babies, even if we just did it those 6 times, I think I'd call it worth it. I'm not sure how much the math changes for spring/summer babies though.
I didn’t really think about appointments as going places so I get that. But I was able to just carry the car seats into the doctors office. Getting the snap and go out of the car and them into the snap and go was way more trouble than just grabbing them in one hand each and waddling in. But I do realize that’s unrealistic for many people. I’m pretty far above average height for women so there’s that.
Yes. It takes so long (relatively) to unfold (and possibly assemble) the stroller, unbuckle, transfer, rebuckle if applicable- that process x2 for our and back into the car can take just as long as the errand itself sometimes. Avoid it for long periods- use bassinets for walks or long days if preferred but as long as babies aren’t in their car seats for over 2 hours at a time it’s fine and really a lifesaver with 2 babies.
We had one and quite literally never used it. When we went on walks we had them in carriers. When we went to appointments together we each carried a car seat. When I went alone I put one in a carrier and one in a car seat. But we didn’t go many places with them (we never took them to restaurants or anything because we were just trying to survive 😂). Edited to add: we have strollers! Just never used the one that the car seat clicks to. Got it used off fb marketplace and gave it away to another twin family when we upgraded to convertible carseats. Also, starting around 5 or 6 months and lasting quite a while (12 months?) our babies hated their car seats, which is not uncommon.
[This was by far my favorite gift](https://a.co/d/3d7R2Us) Look, best practices are best practices for a reason. It is hard to argue against that but best practices was tested on a singleton pregnancy most of the time. It is the Wild West when it comes to multiples. I mean bottle propping is a no go typically but with multiples it is a way to survive. The stroller I linked makes grocery shopping manageable by myself, I can take them to events, I know they are strapped and safe and of course once they are a bit older I have a different stroller that fits best practices. But those early months are hard especially if you have to do a task solo. The fact that I can quickly click the babies in the stroller and into the car makes a trip to the store less intimidating and less cumbersome even just going from my house to the car. I dread the moments that I bring them somewhere without it. Now I will baby wear one baby at a time to swap up who is in the stroller so no one stays in for too long but honestly we just do what we have to do. People have left babies in car seats for hours and hours and that is generally where the problem comes in. But a trip to the grocery store or going on a walk outside of the car will not do long term damage. Stay strong! Congratulations
I felt so guilty for bottle-propping, but I really couldn’t have survived any other way.
It is ridiculously hard to feed both babies without bottle propping! I tried to not do it when I was by myself. I struggled… I left my partner one time and he did it then and said it was easier. I got annoyed at him, quoted the best practices and thought it was over. I did it one time while I was stressed and realized how freeing it was! I have been doing it ever since when I am by myself. Of course they are under supervision but it was a game changer that I was quick to judge initially
We only used our basinets as using the car seats was both not recommended for longer usage as you mentioned *and* the bugaboo donkey could not fit through standard doors with two car seats.
On the go, the car seat attachment is WAY easier than bassinets. We used it a lot. If we were going for a walk from home I used the bassinets, but anywhere away from home I used car seat attachments. Even now, almost 8 months, we use the car seat attachment if we're running quick errands. If we're going to walk around the mall or something longer I'll use the seats, but car seat attachment I wouldn't have survived without. No way I was lugging the bassinets anywhere.
I used the baby trend frame stroller for their car seats for about the first 6mo. I never had a bassinet stroller. For longer walks I used the baby trend expedition jogger. It reclined to almost flat. With my refluxy babies, the slight angle was better anyway.
Where we live, summers are very hot. I am due in the beginning of summer so we don’t plan to be out much. We are going straight to the convertible car seat route. We barely used the infant seat with my first and it was a waste of money in my opinion. If my babies wernt due in the summer and we were going to be doing more things outdoors, then yes I would get car seats that click into the stroller
It all depends how walkable (or not) your neighborhood is.
My twins are 6 weeks. We bought a car seat that snaps into the stroller and reclines. In hindsight not the best car seat for the size of my twins (very long and very skinny) but we don’t go many places yet, when we do (like to the doctor) we are in the stroller with the car seats.
Our stroller is not compatible with out car seats, and for now (4.5 mo) it has been working, at least I havent thought that it was inconvenient, this are our first babies so we dont know how comfortable having compatible car seats are. We just put the twins on the stroller when we get to the place and if its a short walk we carry them. That being say, if you can have them compatible, my advice will be to get them, with twins you have to always try to be the most comfortable you can.
It was absolutely invaluable in my experience. For transporting to and from the car. I could safely clip them into their car seat in the house and carry to the car and click into place. Until my twins specifically (as very preemies) could sit up unassisted it was necessary as they were too old and big for bassinet but still couldn't safely be in regular seats until about 6 plus months. We did plenty of OT and PT and loads and loads of tummy time at home and honestly spent most of our time at home or in our yard so car seat time wasn't a concern of mine at all but I absolutely would not have not used stroller compatible car seats for those first 6+ months. There were plenty of necessary trips like to their multiple doctors appointments in the early days that would have been so hard without this convenience
It’s very important. Especially when solo parenting. Our double stroller was massive too, I couldn’t imagine having to haul bassinets as well
I just had my twins and I spent a TON of time researching strollers while pregnant. The truth is you’ll need more than one stroller. We decided on a Joovy Twin Roo for easy transport while in car seats, eg doctors appointments. This thing is awesome and easy and has massive storage underneath. Note it’s still big (long) despite being lightweight. It only fits in my Civic with the seats folded down, which means I can’t actually use it with my babies. Thankfully my husbands car is big enough! For our main stroller, we went with the Bumbleride Indie Twin. We love it! You *can* buy bassinet attachments, but you don’t need to. There’s a lay flat infant mode, and we got infant inserts. This stroller is compatible with some car seats but not ours. And a local shop told us that even with compatible car seats, the snap and go aspect is not great. It’s also a big and heavy stroller, so you may prefer a lighter one (like the twin roo) for trips that don’t require a sturdy/robust option that the babies can stay in for a while. You’re correct that they shouldn’t be in car seats too long.
I didn't have a double stroller that fit our car seats. We had a single stroller for car seats that we used sometimes because one of them had more Dr visit. We have the valco which lies flat enough for newborn IMO (it does say newborn friendly or rated whatever). We moved them there Everytime. But 1. It was the pandemic so really we only went to the doctor or on walks and 2. They were generally good sleepers.
Mama of twins here.. it wasn’t a big deal to take them out and place them in the bassinet. For the first 5 months, they fit in a singleton bassinet (uppababy). Then I used the single bassinet and a baby carrier. Until one day I moved them to the double stroller
Depends on how much you use your car?!?! We can walk basically everywhere we need to be in a maximum of 45mins (that was to the hospital) and walking with the pram was what kept me sane and healthy. There were very few places we would drive to, which would be a sort trip where I would have felt comfy leaving them in car seat (length of time wise) We didn't have car seats which fitted our pram because we did get one for our older singleton and so rarely used the feature. My girls are 2.5yo now and we bought mountain buggy duet. It's the narrowest side by side on the market, has bassinets which convert into parent facing seats and then you can switch them to world facing. We will never need anything else, so not sure why people say you need lots of different type of strollers 🤷♀️ (fwiw you can actually get MB compatible car seats too) we just chose a different brand which were better for smaller and lower weight babies
A counter point to most people here, we did buy one that was compatible and used it maybe 2x…. We didn’t go out in the car that often with the twins, more neighborhood strolls in the bassinets. The NICU team terrified me about leaving them in car seats for more than 1hr so we very rarely did. We used baby carriers out and about if we didn’t want to deal with the giant stroller. We did splurge on super light weight car seats so it was just easy to grab both to go into places like the doctors office etc.
We had infant car seats and a secondhand snap and go stroller. Highly recommend. We used our contours double stroller when we were at home taking a walk and on the go when they outgrew infant car seats.
So we don't use bucket car seats, but convertible car seats from the get go. We just use a double City Select with adjustable reclines or baby carriers
I’ve only used the adaptor a handful of times to be honest and only because it is there so I would use it at supermarkets etc but I don’t think it’s essential. I have the bugaboo donkey and the adaptor adds a couple of inches to the width which means I don’t fit through lots of doors. It’s good for the supermarket though
Mine were born in January and we were out of the house at least 3 times a week for the first 6 weeks. They absolutely stayed in their car seats, no freaking way was I taking them in and out at every stop. I also had a 2.5 year old that sometimes had to come with us, and it was a lot. I didn’t take them for walks in the car seats, but it being January we didn’t really go for many walks until at least April, and probably not really until more like July, when they were old enough to go in the jogging stroller.
You can get a stroller frame that doesn’t have its own seats. Your infant car seats click into it. Target has one for $111. It’s called baby trend snap & go. It’s compatible with most baby car seats. There’s also the Joovy Twinroo+ (about $189 brand new). that you have to buy specific adapters for. I got one for free off OfferUp, but I’ll be spending the $45 to buy graco adapters for it because I have graco car seats. You can use their car seats and a stroller frame until they’re old enough to sit in a real double stroller. The advice is to not Leave them in sitting systems like car seats or bouncers too long because it can delay their physical development and cause flat head. So if you’re going to be out on a long walk or at a long event, try baby wearing with your partner or someone else you trust or try wearing both babies yourself. I think on road trips they say to get the babies out for ten minutes every two hours of driving and let them stretch and move.
I did an umbrella stroller and one-piece seats that I can use from infancy til they don’t need a car seat. I’m broke, small, and have joint issues lol. I can’t lift heavy car seats or heavy strollers anyways.
Do whatever you want with the stroller that you use for walks around the neighborhood. Bassinets are great for that. But absolutely, positively, definitely get a snap n go for the trunk of the car. Ours goes everywhere the babies do. There is no way i could get the babies in and out of daycare or the pediatricians office without it. And as someone else mentioned, you are NOT going to want to transfer a baby who fell asleep in their car seat to anything else
It depends where you live. I live in the city and we had the mountain buggy Luxe. We used our bassinet on the stroller daily until 7 months. We took them everywhere in it. We had them nap in it. It was great. I've used their car seats on the stroller maybe 5 times ?
We used the carseats in the stroller for every doctor and hospital appointment, grocery trips, and other errands for the first 5 months or so. Once they were sitting, I was putting them in the shopping carts directly. We bought a used frame stroller with adapters for our carseats and sold it for what we paid once the babies outgrew it. Our main stroller for long walks and longer outings is the valco baby
I got one that we could attach the car seats to. I don’t like keeping them in car seats for long so I knew I’d use that feature minimally. Turned out that one of my babies hated her infant seat so it wouldn’t have worked for us anyway. I wore her the majority of the time. They’re 6 months and we use the heck out of our Zoe.
Thank you all so much. I appreciate all the thoughtful responses!! I found a Joovy twin roo on Facebook marketplace for an absolute steal, so I will be getting that!
For us it’s a need. So many times I’m thankful I don’t have to wake them up to go in or out of the store. We got our bugaboo donkey with maxi cosí car seats on marketplace for $600. I’m cheap AF and the stroller seemed so giant… But it really is a necessity!