Naptime Blog

The further along I became in my pregnancy, the more I wondered if I would be better off with a triple stroller or with a double and a baby carrier.  I now have three babies under fourteen months.  My twins are still not walking, or I should say, they are not walking long distances.  Louis, the older one (by two minutes), will pull himself up by himself to stand in the middle of the room, and then he just stands there (with a PERFECT balance!).  He might take a step here and there but inevitably will dive back down to dash into a quick crawl and get where he wants to go.  Anthony, the younger one, will pull himself up by holding onto a couch or toy or whatever is in his way and will take four to six steps before he, too, dives into that dashing crawl.  Let’s put it this way, they can crawl faster than I walk so I guess they are in no rush to walk. 

That leaves me with a pretty big dilemma.  I have a newborn and two 20+ pound sons that still need to be carried around.  I was hoping to continue to use one of my two double strollers (I have both a Graco DuoGlider front-to-back and a Chicco side-by-side) and carry the baby with a Baby Bjorn carrier.  But I do worry that if I need to pick up one of the twins while we are out or walking somewhere, what will I do with the baby in the carrier in front of me?  I know that if I am with my husband we can always take one of the doubles and a single, but there will be times (like picking up my older daughter at the bus stop when I am by myself with the kids) where having two strollers will not work.

I decided to start shopping around for a triple stroller, and was unpleasantly surprised with the pricing.  $500, $700, $900, $1200 and up on a stroller that I will undoubtedly only need for a year or two at most?  I mainly rely on driving (which is a story for another day, as our lease is up next year on our Saturn Outlook and I might need to start looking at minivans for my brood), so it is unlikely I will be using a triple stroller each and every day.  If I do use it, it will mostly be to get around in a store with the kids (so yes, lifting the stroller in and out of a trunk regularly by myself is a big factor), and I just cannot see spending over $1000 on a stroller.  Plus, it is not in our budget. 

So, after narrowing down a stroller by price (staying under the $500 limit), I still wanted to get a sturdy stroller.  I really liked the jogging strollers (not that I jog!), but the ones that I would be inclined to purchase were over our spending limit.  I tried to see which was the lesser of two evils:  a front-to-back triple which I would be able to get in and out of doors with but when crossing the street I would need to be sure the child in the front was safe as he would be so far ahead of me; or a side-by-side stroller (and I have a hard enough time getting in and out of doors and through racks in stores as it is with a double stroller) which would be an awful wide load.

In the end, I decided to go with a front-to-back.  I found the Foundations Trio online and was pleasantly surprised that it was under $400.  I received it by Federal Express within 3-4 days of ordering.  So far so good.

I had my husband had to take it out of the box and put it together for me.  It was fairly simple, the wheels had to go into the axels and the canopies had to be put on.  Opening it was not difficult at all (however, I must admit that I have not tried it myself because I cannot lift anything heavy.  Closing it seemed a little more of a challenge, but we had to get used to closing our Graco and Chicco doubles as well.  I am lucky that my three boys will be in it, so the blue color (which is such a beautiful color by the way!) goes great for our family, and the fabric looks and feels like it will be very easy to keep clean.  I cannot tell you how my Chicco is all stained from juice and cookies and everything else the boys have eaten in it!

I am going to have to buy an infant head support insert, because the stroller does not seem as newborn-friendly as I would have liked. And I have decided to go with a Baby Bjorn carrier as well, in the event I want to travel once in a while with just a double, so we will see how that one goes also.

I will be sure to let you all know how it all works out in a few weeks when I am strolling around in the fall with my three sons to pick up my daughter from the bus and go shopping!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
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