The drama with strollers continues. We purchased the First Years Wave Stroller and we really liked all the cool features and especially the look of the stroller. We also bought the First Years Via Car Seat, which we also really like. It has a lot more cushion and the quality is quite good, especially for the price.
The problem arose when we couldn't get the car seat to snap into the stroller frame and once we did we could not get it back out. It was really hard and you had to push down on the back of the seat while simutaneously pulling up. We figured that it had something to do with the latch on the stroller since the car seat snapped into the base very easily, plus the latch on the seat of the stroller was bent. So we sent it back and almost immediately received a new one last Friday. I put it together and it worked really well with the stroller seat snapping in super easy and I loved the bassinet, very cute. Everything was really smooth with the stroller except the car seat still wouldn't snap in very easily and it was really difficult to take out.
We decided that it must be the latch on the car seat so we sent that one back too. We got a new one on Tuesday, but it was still hard to get in and out and there isn't even a baby in there. I really don't want to have to be messing with such things with a newborn in the seat (it's not like it's the stroller seat which you put on before you place the baby in the seat).
We can use the seat easily with the universal adapter which snaps in beautifully, but the idea of using a stroller from the same company is that you don't have to use the adapter. My husband called them yesterday to see if we had gotten a lemon or if this is just how it works. They said they would look into it and then left a message saying that we shouldn't be using it with the adapter, which totally misses the point.
We can use the seat easily with the universal adapter which snaps in beautifully, but the idea of using a stroller from the same company is that you don't have to use the adapter. My husband called them yesterday to see if we had gotten a lemon or if this is just how it works. They said they would look into it and then left a message saying that we shouldn't be using it with the adapter, which totally misses the point.
The thing that I don't like about the stroller is that the frame is really quite heavy and bulky and I can't imagine using it by myself, especially if we're planning on getting a lighter umbrella stroller too. We were reading the bible, I mean Baby Bargains, to see what it says about which stroller we should get. That particular section is organized by lifestyle, so it recommends certain strollers according to how you will be using it.
We determined that we fall in to the "mall" category since we won't be taking the baby on the metro, hiking trails, dirt roads, or out running. For this it recommends buying a stroller frame like the Snap-n-Go and then has some specific recommendations for strollers to buy when the baby is bigger. It says that we should avoid heavy, bulky strollers with big wheels and we need one with a large basket and cup holders -- the Wave misses every mark. We have come to the conclusion that the book is probably right, which is really sad because we like the stroller, but it's just not really practical for what we'll be using it for.
The issue we are now facing is that while we would prefer to keep our First Years car seat, none of the stroller frames specifically state that they can be used with our car seat and First Years does not sell any. If we can't find a stroller frame that works with our car seat we'll have to find another car seat, which is quite sad.
In other baby product news, today we will be receiving the new chair we bought on Black Friday along with the Fisher-Price Space Saver Swing & Seat - Ocean Wonders (Deep Sea Blue) we bought on Cyber Monday (my sister-in-law wanted to buy this for us so she's sending us the money to pay us back). Hopefully we won't have any issues with these :)
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