Car Dilemmas: Something you may need to think about

A few years ago I sold my massive boat-sized Cadillac because well I never felt comfortable driving such a big car. I had no reason to own such a large car, which might I add also guzzled more gas than I'd like to ever talk about.

I was set on getting myself an older Subaru Impreza and I wanted a coupe. Jon helped me find *my* car and it was love at first sight despite needing some TLC.

In any case, buying such a small compact vehicle was the best choice I have ever made because it fits in every spot and I feel comfortable driving it. And look... it's just so cute!

There is no dilemma until the shock settles and we begin to digest the fact that we are having TWO babies, not just one. Then there are all sorts of things to consider.

Will car seats even fit in my 2-door vehicle?

Will a double stroller fit in my tiny tiny trunk?

Will I be able to get the babies in and out of my car?

Just a few of many thoughts that have crossed my mind over the last 3 months. I have solved some of the dilemmas.

Car Seats: I found out from friends with children that Babies R Us allows you to take the car seats to your car and actually fit them in your vehicle. I can't even begin to say how thankful for this service I am. Jon and I went down to BRU one day and attempted to fit the car seats I had chosen based on various reviews and THEY FIT, with room for both passenger and driver. Although I will say if you had a very tall driver or passenger they may not fit so comfortably.

In case you're curious which car seat's we chose:

We are going to end up purchasing the Chicco Keyfit 30 car seats. They fit great. They are small, unlike some other models. The other thing I really appreciate about these is that they aren't too heavy. I'm no body builder, although I have a feeling lifting two babies and two car seats often will probably help in that department, but I still need the car seat by itself to be light weight enough that when I add a baby to the mix I can lift it. This seems to fit that requirement as well. Most of the other car seats were significantly heavier or they were too big to fit into the car. 

Tandem Stroller: Since my car has such a tiny trunk, fitting a stroller into it was a huge concern that I had. In fact, it was my biggest concern. After all.... if I can't put a stroller in the car how will I transport the babies, which then became the nightmare of "Will I have to get rid of my car??" and of course I absolutely do not want to do that if I can possibly avoid it. 

My first thought was how much luck we had at Babies R Us with trying out the car seats, so I figured thats the first place I should go to try out strollers. WRONG! So wrong. Not knowing this, I went to BRU to test out strollers. First, I was just testing them around the store for their ability to maneuver and then I was testing them to see how easy they folded and of course the FINAL test "Does it fit in the car?" Well, for some reason our tandem strollers of today have become like mini Hummers, with excess everything. I wont lie, I was always that lady that scoffed at massive double strollers in stores and now here I am finding myself in need of one. We tested every single stroller, even the ones I didn't like, alas, no stroller that was carried "in-store" fit into my little coupe.

It was time to take to the internet and see what I could figure out. After a little bit of digging I found that of all brands, Jeep makes a compact tandem stroller, that is actually pretty cute and after measuring my trunk I found that it should fit my trunk.

I immediately ordered the Jeep Traveler Tandem in Spark.

when it arrived I first tested it to see if it fit the way it was shipped (without the wheels assembled and various other parts.) IT FIT! IT FIT! It fit in my tiny little trunk. I drug it back inside and put it all together and spent some time figuring out how to fold it up, which was a little tricky at first, but not much worse than some of the other tandem strollers. I got it all folded properly and put in my car fully assemled.... IT STILL FIT!

I felt I had won the biggest victory. Their car seats fit and their stroller fit, with some extra room for a few bags of groceries or whatever else I may need. I wasn't expecting extra room, but I'll be glad to have it I'm sure.

I'll have to review how I like the actual stroller once they are old enough to ride in it, as clearly this stroller will not be their car seat stroller. It does fit one car seat, but not two, so until they are old enough to fit this stroller I am planning to get the BabyTrend Snap-N-Go tandem stroller frame.



 I still need to check the folding measurements to make sure this one fits when folded, as we dont want any surprises, but Im sure since it's just a frame it must fit. It just must!

Getting the babies out of the car: Well, while they are in car seats it will be a little bit of a juggling act. I think it will be okay getting the car seats out, but I will have to see once we have them and I can test them out completely. I think despite a two door car seeming very inconvenient at first, once they are bigger the car will be awesome. Think about it.... no doors for them to open (yes there are child safety locks, but if you ever forgot to put them back on...) and no window buttons for them to play with. Two babies completely contained in the back seat. I think it's quite perfect. So while it may be a bit of a hassle to deal with at first, in the end I hope it's worth it or I might have to let my little black beauty of a car go.

I'm sure more concerns will come up as this pregnancy progresses, but for now I feel the biggest one, which was the thought of purchasing a new car, has been laid to rest and can be put off for some time now.