Scarlett Pannebaker

let the research begin

Remember how Nate and I are incredibly detail-oriented? And how we are Type A and over-analyze and research and all of that fun stuff? Yeah, well, those are all reasons that registering for our little baby bundle-o-joy will be both awesome and awful all at once. I'm rather overwhelmed about all of the baby paraphernalia out there because I just want to research the heck out of it all and make the best decision possible for us....after over-analyzing for way too long, of course. I know babies don't truly NEED a lot of stuff but I still want to look at all of our options.

For instance, The Stroller. How are you supposed to pick the perfect stroller for your first-born son when you really have no clue what is important? Sure, I can ask all of my new mommy friends out there (and have done it already, don't worry). I can look online and go to the stores and play with them (will probably do that, too). But let me tell you a little story about the big stroller theory in our house.

You see, when I was about 10 weeks pregnant Nate went to our favorite running store. The owner knows us and asked how our Chicago marathon training was going. Nate then informed her that he would be running solo because I am pregnant and, according to legend, the owner then squealed and said, 'Just wait until you meet BOB!!' Then she disappeared behind a curtain and reappeared with a brochure for Nate....containing 'the best running stroller in the world' named BOB.

Apparently this lady went on and on about her BOB and how it is the most fabulous jogging stroller ever. Nate said she talked to him about it for 30 minutes and even highlighted his take-home brochure for reference. And no, they don't tell BOBs at the running store so I don't think she got paid for her referral.

I thought it was really cute that Nate came home with his first 'must have' purchase for the baby and didn't really think anymore about it. But now that we are zooming along into the 23rd week of pregnancy, it's seriously time to think about these things. I figured we'd consider a jogger like the BOB for the distant future when our little man is a bit older and can train his butt off with me as I get back into marathon shape. You can't really run with a newborn baby anyway until they are 6 months or something because they can't hold their head up---this piece of information was devastating to me when I found out. I totally pictured me sprinting around with my little baby right when I got the release from my doc 6 weeks after delivery. Bummer! But as for the BOB: I don't know, I was just thinking that would be a good thing to get once he's a year old or something, and we'd get a standard stroller for the baby stages.

But Nate is really set on the BOB being our main stroller. It does have an infant car seat attachment so you can put a little tyke in there before they are older, and apparently most car seats fit in this adapter. It has a front swivel wheel that also locks, so it can be used for walking or running. It folds up so we can store it easily in our limited space. And yes, it does look pretty cool. We've seen one in person at REI and of course Nate fell even more madly in love with BOB. I liked it a lot, too, but I don't fully understand the whole concept.

Do people really use these as their primary strollers? Will it work out okay for an infant with the car seat adapter? Is it totally frivolous (don't even get me started on the price) and more geared towards a 'later in the baby's life' purchase? Will be regret not getting one of those standard travel system strollers that everyone seems to have? Maybe we should get one of each just to be ridiculous?

If anyone can help a sister out with these burning stroller questions, I'd love you for it. We might go play around with it again and ask the sales dudes very specific, annoying questions just to test their knowledge and ease my mind. And I also want to play around with the more standard strollers, too, just to be thorough of course.

And as a side note, Nate had the grand idea of using our annual REI dividend to buy a BOB next year. This year we had over $300 to spend because of our REI Visa card---which was no small feat, but Nate is obsessed with using the card for everything and then paying it off religiously each month. I swear, I really do hate credit cards but both our REI Visa and Discover card have such great perks I really can't complain. As long as we keep using them like a debit system, only buying items that we can pay for immediately while paying the monthly balance, I guess I'll live.

BOB opinions welcome!