Which Double Buggy/Stroller?
You need to give careful consideration to your specific needs before you make your purchase. There are two main types to choose from a Twin Buggy which is a side by side structure or a Tandem which has one seat in front of the other. Watch out for Tandems because often they are for children close in age but not for two newborn babies.
Firstly, check your doorway or other entrances and gates to your house.
Are they wide enough to push a side by side buggy through? Some side by side buggies are wider than others. Most are designed to fit through standard doorways but please check before purchasing. The last thing you want is to have to load your babies in and out of their buggy outside of your front door this presents all kinds of practical difficulties. You do not want to return from a lovely walk in the fresh air only to disturb your beautifully sleeping babies just to get them back in the house - likely they won't settle again!
Secondly, check the boot space of your car.
Some of the smaller cars and also the MPV's will struggle getting a double buggy in the boot space. If you can fit one in you may find you have very little room for anything else.
Other factors to consider are of course price, weight and the type of usage it will get initially.
My Twin Buggy Experiences
With the fraternal twins I opted for a side by side pushchair made by Mothercare which was suitable from birth. It was on special offer, came with a rain cover and cosy toes and seemed suitable. I gave it a test drive around the shop and without much further thought, I purchased it. The buggy was fine and the babies were comfortable in it however I soon discovered it didn't fit through my front door or travel down my narrow hallway.
When I wanted to take the babies out for a walk, I had to put the buggy up outside the front door and then bring the babies one by one to put them in. This meant that one baby was always left sat in the buggy alone outside the front door whilst I went to get the other one. Now call me paranoid if you like, but I was a first time mum and I wasn't happy about this at all and even now as a mother of 4 I still wouldn't be happy with this arrangement. You know what its like when you are going somewhere you often forget something and have to dash back inside to get it and when you are going out with babies and children you need to carry so much gear with you that you are bound to be forgetting something. All the while your babies are sat outside your front door wondering where on earth their mother has got to!
After persisting with the side by side for a few months we were kindly given a tandem pushchair and we also purchased a cheap second-hand tandem pushchair with the idea of solving our doorway problem. Neither pushchair was suitable. The babies were still too small for it and there was no support or padding. The one who was stuck at the back could see nothing but the seat in front and would scream as soon as placed in it. We tried a brand new tandem purchased at MotherCare which was a lot smaller than the other tandems but as you couldn't recline the front seat which was designed for a toddler this wasn't suitable either.
Eventually after much searching around we purchased another side by side pushchair that was narrow enough to go through the doorway. It was the Maclaren Twin Traveller. It was easier to fold down than the others had been and lighter in weight nevertheless still heavy as double buggies are.
No more struggling through doorways - I could even use all of the local shops where before I couldn't get into most of them and the only shopping facilities I previously used were the big shopping precincts with their wide automatic doors.
I wish I could say our buggy difficulties were over but they weren't. The Maclaren Twin Traveller was narrow because the seats were narrow too and by the time the twins had reached aged 2 my son was really squashed. We could barely get his shoulders in to it. We estimated we had another year to go with the whole buggy situation and opted to buy two single Maclaren buggies. When two adults were available we used the singles when it was just me I continued on with the Twin Traveller. We had purchased a buggy board seat to use with one of the single buggies and we tried occasionally to sit one twin on the seat for short trips to the shops when they were a little older - it wasn't the best solution but worked occasionally.
Suffice, to say we were glad when the need for a buggy was over.
When we discovered I was pregnant yet again with another set of twins I was absolutely certain I was going to find a buggy that would overcome the hurdles I had found before. Fortunately, just five years later there was a lot more choice on the market and products existed that hadn't been available to me before. Armed with the knowledge and previous experience of twins I knew exactly what I wanted and needed and knew I could put the extra money towards a good piece of kit and not bother wasting money on other items that I had discovered to be a waste of time.
I was thrilled to discover the Jane Twin Two Travel System. It ticked all the right boxes for me and I would highly recommend it as being one of the best items for twins that I have ever bought. Not only is it a Tandem system for two newborn twins you can also fit two car seats on to the chassis. It will fit through all doorways. We could wheel it around the house if we wanted to. It is so easy to manoeuvre and what's more you can seat the babies in their car seats and lift them directly from the buggy frame to the car or vice versa. You can lift them off the buggy and carry them into the doctor's surgery, friend's house whilst folding the buggy up and leaving it in the hallway. You can buy all the matching accessories, they come in beautiful colours. I was really proud of my buggy and it was a pleasure to take them out in it and this was reflected in the girls - they were happy to be in it.
I had purchased this system knowing that we were likely to switch to a side by side when the babies became Toddlers and we did but the Jane Twin Two really could take you the whole way through your buggy career.
When the girls got to just over a year old we made the switch. My requirements and their needs had changed. They no longer needed the car seats as they had gone on to the next stage of forward facing seats and I needed a buggy that would fold down small enough to give me more space in the boot of the MPV. We sold the Jane Twin Two and purchased a double side by side. It's no way near as good as the Jane Twin Two but it does the job it needs to do and because the girls are so much smaller than the others were it is likely to do the job until they are 3.
