The 2 under 2 discussion thread - **labour arrangements**

[chele]

£250! I would have sold my belongings for it! It's over £400 here (they have to pay for it to be shipped over and then pay import duty on it, aswell as adding their own profit). OH was saying we should ask the shop if they do a gradual payment scheme, because we just can't afford a massive payout like that. They were showing me their catalogue, but this is one of the cheaper ones; the average cost of the ones they sell are upwards of £600

Gosh that's so unfair!

 

[hellbaby]

Just popping in late! I'm Helen and Bella will be 22 months when this little one is born
I have a selection of transport solutions!
- Bella's old Pliko Pramette for baby and stroller for Bella for when grandparents etc can take them out separately or me and oh go out together
- stroller and sling/pramette and buggy board for when there's just me
- Mothercare Duolite double buggy- lovely and light and narrow but needs some customizing by OH as the seats slope down at a stupid angle.
Guess I'm going to just see what works!

 

[AimeeM]

Hi everyone :wave: 2 under 2 here if all goes ok. Had a browse as i am thinking about double buggies. My eldest was out of his pram by two so wondering if there is any point in me getting a double buggy. Nathan will be 22ish months when the baby is born and he is a fab walker so unsure if there is any point is spending loads on one xx

 

[chele]

Is anyone thinking of getting a tandem with travel system and using a car seat in it? Or just me thinking about it?

 

[Cleo]

Oh thank you ladies! What a great idea for a thread, Chele!! Just what I needed. I'm Cleo (33) and Little Duck will be 18 mo when the new Little Quackers is born in December. I've been stressing more than I care to admit about having them so close together, but it's such a relief to find others in the same boat and others still who have been though it and survived!!

As for my stroller situation, I think I'll use a sling as much as I can at first, and then get the toddler attachment seat for our Valco Baby. https://valcobaby.com/products/strollers/model/tri-mode-ex.html

The only reason I don't like this, is then I can't put the car seat (bucket seat) right into the stroller, I would have to take babe out which I think is a real pain if they're sleeping. Not sure what to do about that...any advice?

 

[chele]

That's my thought problem. I loved being able to take the baby in the car seat out of thr car and put into the travel system without waking the baby.

But I suppose Max would only stay asleep anyway the first few months. I suppose, well I hope, you stress less about waking a baby and maybe aren't so rigid in your routines?!?

 

[TigerLady]

Maybe it's just me, but I almost never used the "sleeping baby transfer" option. I think I can remember 3x when I actually left DK in the carseat to sleep. I can remember 1x with Otter. I just always got them out, even if they were sleeping. If I was out, I put them in the sling, if I was home, I just took them in.

So, I never felt the need for a tandem that accepted a carseat. But I'm a pretty big babywearing proponent, too.

But I could just be strange.

 

[Cleo]

I liked the idea of baby wearing, but it just kills my shoulders after a while. I have really bad shoulder/neck pain from a car accident many many years ago. I could wear Duck for an hour tops before I started to get sore. Now that he's 21 ish lbs, not a chancel. My DH can put him in the bjorn, but I'm out!

I always transferred Duck bc I hated waking him up!! He was and is a light sleeper, so if he's sleeping, I try not to disturb him at all! High maintenance!

 

[pinkclaire]

Cleo a Bjorn is not the best for your shoulders! You need a wrap where your back is supporting more of the baby's weight you'll find it easier then. If you go into Natural parenting section there's loads of people who could help you?

Im not that fussed about the car seat, it is handy for a quick trip but most of the time I put James into his pram as I wanted him to lie flat. I still have the chassis to my car seat so if it's a short trip I'm doing James can walk or stand on the buggy board at the back of it.

 

[chele]

I think I'm going to forget the car seat idea and get my Connecta out and buy a few different slings as well as lying the baby flat in the new tandem. But does that mean the older child has to go underneath?

 

[Cleo]

Cleo a Bjorn is not the best for your shoulders! You need a wrap where your back is supporting more of the baby's weight you'll find it easier then. If you go into Natural parenting section there's loads of people who could help you?

Haha! We have a wrap and a sling for me, but my husband thinks they're girlie so he wears the bjorn! I still find both the wrap and sling to be shoulder killers though. I just like the idea of them so I'll use them until babe gets to be too much!

 

[Lara310809]

We really loved the idea that we could put the car seat onto the buggy without waking LO, and it's useful when I'm in teh UK visiting my family. Becaue I don't drive (but others do), I would take LO with the buggy and the car seat (as a travel system) and if I got a lift back home again I could just shove her in the car in her seat and it worked fine. But this time around I'm not buying another Graco (our car seat is a Graco), and I'm not prepared to pay for another car seat when we have a perfectly good one from DD. So we will not be using the car seat transfer to buggy idea. It's going to be hard though/

~

We decided today we're definitely going for the Baby Jogger City Mini Double

https://i566.photobucket.com/albums/ss109/eloiselara/Pregnancy%202/city20mini20double202.jpg

They are getting a shipment in August and November, so I think we will ask for it to come in November (2 months before LO is due). They said that we only need to pay 50% when we order; they will ship it in, and we can either pay in installments, or pay the last 50% when we collect. They said they will even keep it for us until we're ready to have it at home AND they do a loyalty card; with every £100 you spend, they give you £5 of a future purchase. So by buying the buggy with them, we will get £20 off something else in the future (could get the footmuffs from them too and have them discounted). Not to be sniffed at.

 

[pinkclaire]

Cleo a Bjorn is not the best for your shoulders! You need a wrap where your back is supporting more of the baby's weight you'll find it easier then. If you go into Natural parenting section there's loads of people who could help you?

Haha! We have a wrap and a sling for me, but my husband thinks they're girlie so he wears the bjorn! I still find both the wrap and sling to be shoulder killers though. I just like the idea of them so I'll use them until babe gets to be too much!

Oh yeah my OH would say the same thing! I suppose you may not need a buggy by the time that happens?

 

[chele]

It's all gone quiet so we'll move on shall we?

 

[chele]

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS:

What are you planning on doing regarding sleeping arrangements? Will you do the same as last time? Will you co-sleep? Will you move the baby to their own room at the same age?

And what will they sleep in? Will you get another cot? A cot bed? When will you move your toddler to a toddler bed?

Max has his own room and was moved into it at just 3 weeks old. I plan on doing the same with Chichi.

Max has a cotbed and I am debating whether to buy a second cotbed or just get a normal cot for Chichi. I just don't know. I don't know when Max will move to a toddler bed and then I can perhaps use Max's cotbed for Chichi and convert it into the bed part when they're ready.

 

[suz29]

We had Dario in our room till he was just over 6 months and plan to do same with the new baby.

We've bought another cotbed, all Dario's furniture matches so we didn't want to start spliting it up.

 

[pinkclaire]

We had James in with us co-sleeping until 6 months then he went in his own room in a cot. We have put him in a cotbed (with sides up) and baby will have his old cot when she moves in her room. Until then she will either co-sleep or go in a crib we have set up in our room depending on what she likes!

 

[Lara310809]

LO is still in our room with us, and she's 1y3w old It's not through choice though, I assure you.

The background info (you don't have to read it, but it explains what's going on):

We emigrated when I Was still pg with her, and we had the understanding of getting a tiny 1 bed flat here and swapping with a family member who had 2 bedrooms. She was happy with the idea, we were too. It would allow us to have 2 kids. The move fell through literally a couple of weeks before it was all going to happen. We were already TTC#2 at the time. We're now onthe list for a government house, since we can't stay in a 1 bed place, and we can't afford to buy. But it could take years.

Since I was in the 2WW when the move fell through, I could have been pg with #2, so we went about discussing what would happen if I was pg. We decided we would shift our stuff around and we would make it work where we're currently living. We literally had no other option, we can't live anywhere else!

When I got my BFN that month I was so sad, and we were annoyed that our TTC#2 was put on hold indefinitely becase of the other person chanign her mind last minute for purely selfish reasons. We didn't see why we should wait when we would have had to make it work if I had been pg that month. So we decided to go ahead and continue TTC. So we did, and now we're pg with #2

Because we could be here for years (before a 3 bedroom house becomes available from the government), we have to arrange things as best we can for the kids. We only have one bedroom, so we're still sharing with LO. In the third trimester we will convert the bedroom into a room for the kids. We will buy a sofabed for the lounge, and OH and I will sleep in there after LO has gone to bed, and fold it away during the day. LO will go into the bedroom, and once the new baby is old enough to share with her (i.e. not waking DD up in the middle of the night), it will go in there too.

It's good in a way, because the room will solely be for the kids; they can have space for their toys in there and space for them to play and sleep etc. We are sacrificing our own room, but we made the decision to do this, so we should forfeit before our kids do.

My daughter will be 21 months when the baby is born, and I don't think she will be ready for a full size bed at that point, so we will be using a glider crib for the baby for the first few months, and then putting our daughter into a full size bed when she turns two, and the baby will go into the cot. If we feel she's still too young for it, we have a travel cot we can put her in for a few months if we need to.

 

[topazicatzbet]

callum slept in the same room as me til he was 13 months, and then moved to his own room, and a few weeks late i moved him into a toddler bed, he sleep really well in that now.

this one will sleep in with me, first in the moses basket and then into a cot.
i did co sleep a lot with callum but im gonna try to avoid it this time as it took a while to get callum out of it. depending on how well this one sleeps will depend on when i move him out a he will e sharing a room with callum, but will prob be at least a year.

 

[Baby France]

Both of mine slept in their own room since birth. My monster and elf shared a room from the day she was born. We were lucky in that she never woke him up or vice versa...they probably have done (touch wood) about 3/4 times.

They have to share a room as we have a two bedroomed terrace. We're hoping that when they get to school age we can move into a bigger house where they'll have their own rooms.

Both slept in cots, as Jacob was 16 months when Emma was born we decided he was too young for his bars to come off but tbh by the time he was 20 months we'd taken the bars off anyway. Cots are matching too and turn into cotbeds