Dundee Mama

Hi mamas,

Welcome back! I’m so grateful that you chose to join me today for another fun pregnancy topic. In the previous post I spoke about the journey as a whole and today I will focus on one specific part of it – The hunt for the perfect pram.

If this is your first time thinking about your travel system or a pram, and already feel overwhelmed by the myriad of choices available, I can assure you, you’re not alone. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that choosing a pram/ travel system will be harder than choosing a sofa. If you’re wondering why I chose to compare it to choosing a sofa, when a car would probably be a more suitable comparison choice, it’s because in my relationship there’s one person tasked with the car choosing, and that’s not me. I was however (self-)tasked with choosing the sofa, and it took forever. So, yeah, I found choosing a pram to be worse than choosing a sofa.

Being a superstitions Bulgarian woman, I was very mindful to not jinx anything with baby. And this mindfulness or anxiety if you will meant than I didn’t start looking into anything baby related, including travel systems, until after the 28th week of my pregnancy. This week coincided with the Christmas/ New Years break from my work, and it meant that I actually had some head space to dive into it as well. No one prepared me for the black hole of options I was about the jump into by googling the word “pram”. And to be honest, even if they did, I wouldn’t have believed it. If you’ve already been through this then you know exactly what I mean by overwhelming amount of choice. You will also understand when I say that there are different brands, but a lot of the prams just look the same. If you’ve not been there yet, then prepare yourself, and hopefully this blog will give you some useful tips to navigate through this part of the journey smoothly.

Being a person who likes to try things on before buying, I started looking at local stores I could go to and have a look at the options and take them for a spin. Google told me that there were two shops in Dundee I could go to and so my partner and I ventured out into the wild to hunt for the perfect pram. We visited both shops in Dundee and were greeted by friendly staff and professional service. We tried some prams, taking them for a spin around the shop, but ultimately didn’t fall in love with any of them. After the in person visit, I dove even deeper into the wonderful world of the inter web, reading more reviews, watching videos and looking for tips about prams. It helped that after the visit we knew which brands we kind of liked and were maybe considering as options. As you might imagine, the moment I typed in the word “pram” into my google search bar and pressed enter, the algorithm just went wild and all the ads I was seeing on social media were pram related. One of those ads was for a brand called Cosatto. I had never heard of them before and initially thought it was an absolute scam because their designs were so beautiful and different from all I had seen so far. Me being me, googled them again and started to look at reviews. The prams were designed and made in the UK from recycled materials and they were offering some pretty good bundles.

As I am sceptic about pretty much everything online, I had to see them in person and make sure they’re all they claim to be. So, I once again turned to my trusted friend Google and asked where near me I could find them. The only shop I could find was in Kirkcaldy, so my partner and I set sail and one fateful weekend went on a road trip to this place I’ve never been to before. The shop was relatively easy to find, and luckily we managed to find parking close by too. It was a much bigger store than the ones in Dundee, and they had a whole section dedicated to Cosatto prams and travel systems. I walked straight to them and it was love at first sight. A traditional style travel system that included basically everything: a carrycot, a seat, all the accessories, a car seat with a rotating base and even a travel stroller. Now, similarly to how I choose cars, I go for the look first and hope everything else I like is there. In this case, it was. The pram was lightweight, folds mostly compact and has a lot of storage. I would link it, but photos will have to do, as it’s no longer available.

Anyway, the point of the story was that there was a happy ending, but as always behind every happy ending there’s a long journey the hero must undertake and a lot of learning to be done. So, here’s what I learned and my advice to any mama, regardless of whether you’re expecting your first child or are looking to upgrade your travel system:

1. Always do your research.
   • It doesn’t matter what you buy, always do your research. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but writing it all down helps when comparing the options. Before I visited the shops I checked their websites to see what they have on offer. I then looked up each pram I liked individually and wrote their specifications down so I could compare them easier. I spent a couple of afternoons doing that, but it helped me narrow down my options.
2. Know what you want, what you can do without and what is a deal breaker.
   • When I went in the first shop for prams, I had a very vague idea of what I was looking for, because ultimately I was there to browse and test. I knew that the pram should be folding easily and be light enough for me to load in and out of the car, but didn’t know what I was willing to compromise on, and what is a must have for me. This resulted in me almost being convinced to go for a system that didn’t quite work for me, because the seller was really good at their job.
3. You can say no.
   • Shopping for travel systems can be overwhelming, and not just because of the many choices and options. Seller’s job is to SELL things, and there are ways to make you feel like you can’t say no. Be mindful of that and remember that ultimately it is your choice and you don’t have to agree to purchase something just because the person is really nice.
4. Check online and second hand.
   • Sometimes there are better deals online or second hand for items we like in the shop. So, if you have time check online. There’s a few groups on Facebook where mamas near and far sell items, and as long as the item is in good condition and you have the means to collect, or they can deliver, you can save yourself some pounds. Just be mindful that sometimes people can overcharge, so be sure to weigh the benefits.
5. Borrow
   • Borrowing an item from a mama friend is a great option to help you save some monies on items that both yours and her kids outgrow. This is something I’ve not done for two reasons: 1. not many of my friends have babies, and those who do had their stuff sold by the time I fell pregnant; and 2. I felt uncomfortable asking. A lot of my friends in Bulgaria borrow and swap things from each other, which is what I hope I can bring to our community here as well.
6. Be mindful of delivery times
   • We went looking for a pram in January, which is not the best of times according to the people selling prams. That is because of Chinese New Year and the fact that a lot of parts, if not whole systems are manufactured in China, and over the month of January there’s limited to no supply. As I was 28 weeks pregnant this didn’t bother me because I thought that even with a 10-12 week lead time on some items, they would still be on time for baby’s arrival. Luckily, the system we chose wasn’t affected at all, so I was right not to worry, and we got it within the week.
7. Listen to your intuition
   • You know best. I know the hormones can make you doubt yourself, but ultimately you should always remember that you know best. Not your partner, not the shop assistant, not the person online, YOU. Not everything we see online is what it really is, so approach things with curiosity, a dose of scepticism and intuition.

* Just to note, this post is speaking highly of Cosatto and the system we got, but at the time of writing it, we haven’t taken it out in the wild, as baby is not here yet. This is not an ad. This post aims to share my experience and give advice on overall choosing of a travel system. You can use the things I’ve learned and apply it to your own circumstances and choose a travel system by a different brand.

So, mama, if you’ve made it this far, thank you.

If you’d like to share your story and experience as a Dundee Mama, please get in touch.

Let’s share, connect, and support each other. 

Until next time, mamas! 💛