Stroller for The Little Girl

The Little Girl arrived on the first day she turned 36 weeks in gestation, marginally premature. Her APGAR score was 9/10 and she didn't need admission to NICU much to our relief!

However, her shopping was not completed either so she did not have a stroller ready when we left the hospital. We carried her in our arms during hospital visits, and placed her into her Britax infant car seat during car trips from The House to the hospital and back.

Finally after confinement of 44 days, we "checked out" of The House and returned to The Apartment. Our first stop was KLCC, and desperate for a stroller!

I was nursing The Little Girl inside the baby care room in Isetan KLCC, while The Other Half was sent outside, a few metres away, on a mission.

Read: Purchase a Quinny Zapp with Maxi Cosi Cabrio baby seat and its base. We had been using the Britax infant car seat prior to this and found the rear facing mode a little too tight for entry and exit. There is no way we adults can bend awkwardly until The Little Girl is ready to face forward!

The pair of Maxi Cosi Cabrio with Quinny "legs" were handy for the first 8 months. At 9 months, The Little Girl grew a little taller and her legs stuck out, hanging over the edge of the Maxi Cosi Cabrio. We had to convert the Quinny "legs" to fit the Zapp (the original design) at that point.

She was too small, unfortunately, to sit in the Quinny Zapp without hunching over. In my opinion, that is bad posture. She also could not sleep comfortably in the Quinny Zapp, as she was still falling asleep after meals occasionally.

 

My tiny discomfort is not being able to fully utilise the tiny triangular shopping basket from the Quinny Zapp design as the aluminium structure gets in the way. It is also a little too tiny for my liking, or perhaps my Carter diaper bag was too large to fit into it.

 

We had to occasionally hang our Carter diaper bag across the handle bars (against manufacturer's advice!) when I was alone with The Little Girl at the changing room and have no other choice for clean surface. The weight of the diaper bag can tip the stroller over after The Little Girl has been lifted out of the seat - a no no no! Do not hang your diaper bag over the handle bars!!

 

That was when we decided to get her the Maclaren Quest; and hand down the Quinny Zapp/Maxi Cosi Cabrio/base to a girlfriend who was then expecting a boy.

This time, we measured the length of Maclaren Quest folded into its umbrella mode against my car boot space before paying for the purchase at Mothercare. Thankfully, it fits just barely, diagonally across my tiny boot space (BMW E87).

All was good. The Maclaren Quest travelled well with us to the UK and back. Emirates even loans out the same stroller at the Dubai International Airport so that our stroller can be checked in all the way through our connecting flights.

At some point when The Little Girl started to exert her autonomy (read: terrible twos) by insisting on pushing the Maclaren Quest, instead of sitting in it, we passed the Maclaren Quest over to a the same girlfriend and her son (also grew too tall by then), just as we did before with the Quinny Zapp/Maxi Cosi Cabrio/base.

 

The shopping basket is big enough to carry some light groceries or shopping but once The Little Girl was put to sleep in low tilt, we could not access those items until she wakes up and be put back to the sitting tilt!

 

Hanging the diaper bag over the handle bars is also a no no no as the stroller can tilt over backwards if the weight is not countered with a baby/toddler in it. Your best bet is putting the diaper bag into the shopping basket, if your diaper bag is small enough.

 

Now that The Little Bean is on his way, we have bought Maclaren Quest 2012 updated model and still thinking about the Bugaboo with Maxi Cosi baby seat. More on that to come...