Hi, my name is Sprogmama and I’m addicted to buying buggies. Actually, I’m addicted to shopping, but that’s a whole other story. I should have known this would happen the day I bought the first one – I was still only trying to get pregnant and had no idea if it would end up sitting in the spare room for one month or one year.

Luckily, it turned out to be one month, though it was still a daft time to even be thinking about what I might be pushing my little bean around in. I knew I wanted a travel system and it had to be good quality, but I was limited on funds. My reasoning (as is so often the case) was that I’d found a bargain on eBay and thus had to snap it up or such a good deal would never present itself again. Which is nonsense of course, but then I am also terribly, terribly impatient. And I like to play with new toys.

Sprogzilla in the iCandy Apple

So, I had a used iCandy Apple which was shortly after followed by the matching Maxi-Cosi car seat and easybase. It stayed in the spare room eliciting occasional broody glances for the next 10 months until my son arrived.

After spending more money on a jogger wheel and a flavour pack, I decided I didn’t really like it any more. The aforementioned wheel used to drive me mad by getting stuck and then it turned out that the flavour pack fitting didn’t work with my older model. I couldn’t be bothered to make the 80 mile round trip back to the nearest iCandy retailer to get a refund so on eBay it went.

In the Maxi-Cosi Mura

I decided to find another buggy that would be good for rambling around the countryside and not require me to visit a specialist retailer to buy accessories. After hours more research and a few days checking out eBay again, I ended up with a Maxi-Cosi Mura, a very nice, chunky, all-terrain tank weighing a hefty 18kg. I loved it and still do, but boy is it heavy!

This led me to the conclusion that we needed something more lightweight for going to the supermarket and general trips into town. I also felt a bit embarrassed wheeling a buggy around nice clean shops with mud all over the tyres! At this point, Sprogdaddy was getting a bit annoyed with my buggy obsession, but after a little persuasion he conceded that it would be a good idea so long as we didn’t buy anything expensive. My first choice was a McLaren Techno XT, but that was out of the budget, so in the end we chose a cheap Chicco London stroller from Argos.

For all it’s cheapness, Sprogdaddy rather liked it, but I was unsure. It wasn’t at all smooth compared to my others and I felt that the wheels weren’t aligned very well. I guess you get what you pay for…..

Sprogzilla in the Xplory

Which leads me to my most recent (and final!) purchase. Many months ago, I’d seen a rather strange pushchair with a central stem on which the seat goes up and down so baby can be up nice and high. It was expensive and I mean really expensive, so it was never considered an option. Still, my mind wandered back to it and I decided to learn a bit more. This is never a good idea with me, so I’m sure you can guess the inevitable conclusion.

I can wholeheartedly say I wish I had paid more attention to this pushchair back at the beginning of my journey – I would have saved myself a fair bit of money, not to mention the fact that my son would have been incredibly comfortable when out and about right from the day he was born. It is, quite simply, bloody marvellous.

Xplory with Summer Kit

The model I’m referring to is a Stokke Xplory. It is an absolutely ingenious bit of Scandinavian design, a dream to push, impressive build quality and I love that Sprogzilla is able to sit up high out of the way of car exhausts, inquisitive dogs etc. My only quibble is that I can’t take it off-road, it’s designed primarily for urban use.

I also bought the matching footmuff, a cup-holder and a summer kit which consists of a well-ventilated light hood, parasol, breathable liner and sunsail. I really wanted this to be the perfect purchase, so I was particularly naughty and bought the whole lot brand new. *gulp* Sprogdaddy wasn’t impressed with me spending so much initially, but he loves it too and we even fight over who gets to push!

I bought the whole kit from a lovely retailer called Back in Action. A few days after buying it, I discovered it a fair bit cheaper elsewhere with the cup holder free – Back in Action very kindly price matched and gave me an additional £5. I’ll be going back to them in the near future for the Tripp Trapp I’ve got my eye on. When my bank balance has recovered, that is.