frida's Profile

cweingar - We have the Silver Cross Sleepover, we received it as a gift from my mother-in-law. We got a ton of use out of it between 0 and 6 months when we lived in a very flat city laid out on a grid. Our daughter slept in the bassinette all the time, and the basket has a ton of room to do shopping, etc. We don't have the stand, and as another poster said, I don't really see the point. Just put the brakes on the stroller.

As much as I loved that stroller during those first couple of months, I don't know if I would shell out for it on my own. It has some pretty serious issues -
1. It's mammoth and it doesn't collapse well at all. If you have more than 2 or 3 stairs to your house you won't be able to get it inside without a serious struggle, and forget about taking it in your car if you want to take anything else.
2. The wheels don't pivot. Not a big deal in a truly urban area with wide sidewalks, but it makes it hard to maneuver around sidewalk obstacles or turn corners. Plus, when we moved to a place with less well-maintained sidewalks it became impossible.
3. It doesn't work with a carseat, so to get the baby from the carseat to the stroller you will have to risk waking him or her up. This may not seem like a big deal to you now, but trust me, it will be.
4. The wheels get squeaky. I took to keeping a can of WD-40 by the door, and I didn't really like having to spray the stuff near a newborn.
5. It doesn't make sense as a stroller for a child older than about 1. I know an older child will fit in the stroller, but the heavier they get, the harder it is to get any sort of nimble movement out of the stroller at all.

My secretary loaned me one of those ginormous Graco strollers with tons of cup holders that the infant car seat snaps into. It was ugly as sin, but man, so convenient. It folded up easily and had huge wheels that pivoted and made it super nimble. Plus we could get the sleeping baby in and out of the car without waking. Too bad I'm such a snob about the aesthetics, or else that would have been my dream stroller.

The stroller that we've gotten the most use out of is our MacLaren. It goes everywhere and does everything. Ours has traveled all over the US and Europe & is still in good shape. It's just not great for infants because it doesn't recline all the way. When our daughter was a newborn we used a Combi Soho for traveling. It's not the most nimble thing ever (teeny wheels), but ti's ultra light, folds up like a dream and reclines all the way. She slept many nights in it parked by our hotel bed.