Conquering the Impossible : Choosing an NYC-Compatible Stroller

I never really thought that out of the multitudes of decisions to be made regarding baby care and gear that choosing and sticking with a decision on a stroller would be the hardest choice to make. I mean, daycare decision-making was a nightmare but the fact that I really only had about 5 places to choose from actually helped. And figuring out how to comfortably fit a demanding third roommate into our one bedroom has felt like more of an interesting mental and designing challenge to tackle. However nothing has caused me more mental stress and doubts than stroller choice.

I think there are many reasons why this is, including such valid factors as convenience in an inconvenient city, expense, and the need for (but not regular use of) a car seat. But then there are the not-so-valid factors that come into play like multitude of choices, strollers as a status symbol and crazy features that seem oh so necessary when you think of them pre-baby.

In NYC, there are a lot of BIG strollers and I must say they are alluring with all of their bells and whistles. Every day I see an enormous amount of Bugaboos, Orbits, and Stokkes. However, I never once considered any of these due to the fact that they cost about $1000 for the system and that is ridiculous. Plus, from my research I know that most of these systems weigh at least 30 pounds which is not a possibility since my primary form of transport is subway.

When I started my research (with the invaluable help of Babygizmo.com) I decided that my stroller needed to have a few key features:

1. It needed to be as lightweight as possible, which basically made me determine that I was probably looking in the umbrella stroller direction.

2. It had to have good, sturdy wheels that swiveled almost the full way around.

3. The stroller frame needed to be sturdy enough to hang a bunch of bags off of and not tip over since we would be walking daily about 10 blocks back and forth to daycare.

4. Preferably, it would serve from newborn-50 lbs.

5. If possible, it would allow an infant car seat to be attached and make it a pseudo-travel system.

Basically I was looking for the impossible. Umbrella strollers are easy to find, but are about as sturdy as my umbrella that flew away in a minor rainstorm the other day. And true travel systems weigh so much that I started imagining being stranded at the bottom of the NRW platform waiting for a non-existant kindly stranger to help me and my child crawl from the depths of the underground.

The solution most New Yorkers seem to come to is the Maclaren solution. Pretty much everyone here has one. It accomplishes points 1-4 above probably better than any other stroller on the market and is reasonably priced at around $300. However, I was pretty determined to get a stroller that had point 5 due to the amount of travel that would probably happen in the first 6 months of life and because of the smallness of our apartment. I don't have space to store two strollers (actually I barely have space to store 1 and I'm still determining if it makes sense to block up one of our only windows with the carseat since we have no where else to put it).

Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of my self-induced and completely irrational despair, I found the Maxi-Cosi Perle:



It weighs 15 lbs, has wheels on par with the Maclaren, can hold all of my crap, has the weight limits to be Cash's primary mode of transportation until kindergarten, and, the piece de la resistance, is compatible with the Maxi Cosi Mico infant carseat:



After having Ross give it a whirl around Babies R Us the other day (for height testing purposes), I can safely say that the stroller decision has been made and our registry is set.