The Doona....
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| Doona Car Seat and Stroller in one! |
We welcomed our third kiddo a few months ago and he is just the most perfect addition to our family. So when I say a few months ago I really mean he is 7 1/2 months but he's the baby and he's our last baby so really I want to pretend he is still a newborn....a big giant newborn LOL
Anyways, when I say the best car seat ever I am not exaggerating! Before I go on let me tell you a bit about us. Then about about why the Doona car seat has been so perfect!
Our kiddos are 7, 4 and 30 weeks LOL okay, okay .... 7 1/2 months. I work as an assistant director for a preschool and my husband is the best stay at home Daddy! Our older kiddos are at the age where they are pretty independent. They no longer need a stroller for outings and they don't need 5 million things just to go to the park. Over the last few years my husband has had a few back surgeries and ultimately he had to have the lower part of his spine fused. As we were anticipating the arrival of the new baby, his back was always a concern because I knew he was the one that was going to be home with him. Due to that we were researching baby items that would be helpful to him and low impact for his back. (ie. light weight strollers/car seats, changing tables that were higher so he wouldn't have to bend down, baby carries with good support etc.) it's also good to note that at this time we also had one car...and it was a sedan and we needed to fit a high back booster, and kid booster and a infant car seat.....STRESSFUL!!!
Okay, now that you have a super quick snapshot of our glamorous life LOL I am excited to tell you why the Doona has been so AMAZING!!!
The Doona is an infant car seat that goes into your car just like a click in car seat but.......drum roll please.......you take it out and pull a handle and out pops the wheels to become a STROLLER!!!!! Yep...your read that correctly a stroller, no extra parts, no getting the snap n go or the stroller out of the trunk, no carting around that heavy infant car seat awkwardly on one arm while your baby's head bobbles around. You literally take your car seat out of your car like any other one and you pull the handle and out come the wheels and you extend the handle and in 30 seconds you are on your way. Putting the baby back into the car is just as easy! You pull the handle while swooping the wheels in and just like that you are back to a car seat, snap it into the base and you are ready to go!!!
Here is why we love it.
We have 3 kids, I can pull the car seat out and have it in the stroller mode before the other two are even out of the car. I'm not worrying about anyone running into the street or out into a parking lot while i'm getting the baby situated.
When your in a hurry and you pull that car seat out and swing it onto your forearm and its heavy and hard to carry.....yep not with the Doona!!! (Note: This is why I mentioned my Husbands back earlier) Even walking from the car to the house you as a parent typically do this (carry the car seat), it is so taxing on your body to have that much weight on one side of your body and for someone who has back problems is it detrimental. My husband literally takes the car seat out and opens the wheels all in one motion, he does not ever have to carry the heavy car seat! It has been a huge benefit to us!
The Doona is so small and compact. Essentially you have a stroller that is the size of an infant car seat. For those of you who travel, the Doona is one of the slimmest car seats on the market. It can fit down the aisle of an airplane. (Remember the car seat dilemma I talked about earlier)......yep the slimmest car seat so when I had to figure out a way to fit 3 seats across that was a huge selling point. (Ya know in case the magic built in stroller didn't sell ya lol)
For those of you wondering we ended up doing high back booster, the bubble-bum booster seat and the Doona infant carseat. (I literally researched 3 car seats across for months and read every article and blog post I could find.....the truth is it sucks, it's stressful and you need a bigger car when you decide to have 3 kids LOL but good luck to you! LOL)
So fast rewind to our the day we brought our new baby home....
The nurses were all in awe of our magic car seat stroller (That's what we refer to it as) our son is now 7 1/2 months and he is a BIG boy!!! He weighs 20lbs and he still fits perfect! My husband tells me that he gets stopped almost on a daily basis by Moms or Grandma's who ask him about the stroller and he proudly demonstrates it's magic for them!!!
A few things to note:
COST: We are on our third kid.....it's hand-me-downs and re-gifted items around here. This was in fact gifted to us for our new addition and we are so thankful to our family for that but it is the only new thing we got and honestly if I had to do it over again I would buy this hands down!!! It is the one thing we have used EVERY SINGLE DAY since he was born!!! If you are buying a new car seat with a base and a new stroller it ends up being the same cost. In our opinion it is worth every penny!!
STORAGE: Remember how early I mentioned how our older kids don't need a ton of stuff, well that is the stage of life we are in so we don't need a huge basket to store everything in. I do have to admit. This car seat has zero storage, but again you get a magic stroller so we came up with a solution. We attached this to the handle we store a bottle, a formula container a burp cloth and a water bottle and we are good to go!!! If i'm with the kids I have 500 extras of everything in my car and my purse because, well because folks, I became my Mother but if the Apocalypse happens....I will be ready!!! My husband on the other hand......he's a guy soooooo....really that's all he needs LOL We also bought a Mommy Hook and this Portable Diaper pad it hangs on the side of the stoller and neither one needs to be removed in car seat mode or stroller mode so it makes it easy as pie!
SHADE: This has not been an issue for us even though we live in California and it is always sunny and hot the shade on it does not seem to pull down far enough to always shade the baby. I personally bought a Covered Goods Cover it's an all in one cover, I used it for breastfeeding, covering the stroller, it goes on a highchair and on a cart.....another must have product in my opinion!!!! Anyways we have always used that to cover the baby from either the sun or just to have over him while he is sleeping or to get him so sleep when big brother and sister are in the car distracting him.
Handle in carseat position
Handle in stroller position
OVERALL: Overall I can not express to you how happy we have been with this stroller. We are a busy family, him and Daddy are out during the day, on weekends we are at sisters soccer games and brothers baseball games, we go to museums, we go to amusement parks, we go to the zoo, we go to parks and on walks. This stroller has gone everywhere and with ease we have been able to transition into a family of 5 and I am so happy to share my best baby find with you guys!!! I only wish I had this stroller with my other two!!!!
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