Silicon Valley Baby

Of car seats, strollers, and doulas

We made some of our remaining equipment-related decisions in the past couple of days, and acted on them today.

For a car seat, we decided to get a pair of Britax Roundabout car seats (one for each car). I have an appointment with the California Highway Patrol on January 4 to install them. (I tend to suck at this sort of thing, and the cops do thousands of them per year--they're so popular that the service has a monthlong waiting list.) The Britax seats are tested to meet UK safety standards (impact-tested at 60 mph) instead of US standards (30 mph), and every single review I've seen gives them 4.5 or 5 out of 5 stars.

Also, although the seats are expensive, they are "convertible" seats--usable both as baby and toddler seats. So, in the long run, they should save us a bit of money.

For the stroller, we decided to get the Zooper Waltz (2006 model). This is a good time to be buying things like strollers. As with cars, the retailers want to close out their stock from the year ending; changes from year to year tend to be negligible.

Pictures of both items below. Although a second child seems like an insane person's dream right now, we're keeping things somewhat unisex just in case.

Britax Roundabout (Color: "Mist")



Zooper Waltz (Color: "Navy & Beige")

We selected the Zooper based on research done by my best friend, who bought one for his baby girl two years ago, and recommends it heartily. At 17 lbs., it is at the top end of what SiliMommy feels she can wrangle up and down the stairs. (Hopefully, it will live in the car, though.)

We do have one friend who is enthusiastic about the offerings of MacLaren, another high-end stroller manufacturer. In the end, it was kind of a toss-up. (Bottom line: If we don't end up liking the Zooper, we can just return it and get the MacLaren. Blue by American Express gives you 3 months to return something, even if the retailer himself won't accept the return--a great benefit!)

In other news, we decided to hire a postpartum doula. Her role is essentially to support SiliMommy and me to enable us to care for our baby as best as possible. She will come home with us from the hospital and help us get SiliBaby set up in her new digs. This page describes the concept of a postpartum doula much better than I could hope to, so check it out! We're thinking of having her come, on average, three-to-four times a week for the first three weeks of SiliBaby's life.

posted by SiliDaddy @ 12:04 AM