My Favorite Stroller - Uppa Baby Cruz

Whether you are a new mom or a mom just adding to your family, figuring out a way to get your family around is a priority.

I have a lot of experience with this because in my 4 years as a mom, I have owned 4 strollers, and 7 baby wearing carriers (more on this later)! Trust me, I wish I had NOT owned that many but my loss is your gain. I will also share my FAVORITE stroller right now.

So why have we owned so many strollers? Well the first stroller we got was a stroller/car seat combo from Baby Trend. While the stroller wasn’t horrible, the car seat WAS. It was super uncomfortable and Noelle hated it. After a couple drives, it went back to the store. After that we purchased a Graco Snugride car seat. Noelle still hated this car seat but it was much more comfortable and padded. We purchased a Graco double stroller at the time and it was a PAIN. It was difficult to collapse, and it was huge. At the time we had a compact SUV and it wouldn’t even fit in the back without removing the front tray! At this point we decided to sell the stroller and figure out another solution.

All in all, it didn’t even matter if we found the PERFECT stroller that fit the Graco car seat because Noelle absolutely hated the car seat. I mean screaming bloody murder crying! So we quickly learned that attaching the car seat to a stroller was not an option for us. This is when we discovered baby wearing (which I will blog about later). I wore Noelle a lot! We rarely used a stroller. However, when she finally got to a place where she didn’t want to be worn as often, we purchased a City Mini stroller. The reason I purchased this stroller was one reason: the single hand fold. There was a handle on the seat and when you pulled it, the entire stroller folded in half. It was super easy.

Flash forward to now. I had originally planned on keeping the City Mini. I love to go on walks so I knew I needed something. My plan was to push Noelle in the City Mini and baby wear Juliet. However, anyone who has ever had a newborn knows… plans change! Juliet does NOT like the be worn in ANY carrier (we have tried our woven wrap, ring sling, lillebaby, and k’tan). She actually prefers to be in the swing or the car seat. So now we had a predicament. She would be happy as a clam in the car seat and as soon as I got her out to put her into the baby carrier (for a quick shopping trip), the screaming would start. We knew we needed to change things up. Enter… the Uppa Baby Cruz stroller.

Now, I could go into all the details, about how the chair can recline, the handle extends, and the chair can be flipped around. However you can find almost all that information in YouTube videos and on the Uppa Baby site. I just wanted to share why we specifically found the Cruz to be our perfect stroller.

First, understand that we purchased the Uppa Baby Mesa Henry car seat for Juliet. This is the first car seat to be made WITHOUT any fire retardants! This was super important to us. (Honestly, I wish I could find a convertible car seat for Noelle that was fire retardant free as well but no one makes one yet). Therefore, we knew an Uppa Baby stroller would be the best option to hook in our car seat.

Second, we needed something that would be adaptable for Noelle too. She is 4 years old and we debated for a LONG time whether we needed a bench for her to sit, or if we should get the Vista (which has two seats). However, we found the perfect solution in the piggy back ride along platform! This allows us to push Juliet, and Noelle can stand on the back. She loves it!

Third, the storage underneath the stroller is AMAZING. I didn’t even realize this when we purchased it. We can fit the entire HUGE diaper bag backpack under there + a bunch of other stuff. It is like never ending storage!

Fourth, Noelle gets to face Juliet. She loves this because she can talk to her, help put the paci back in Juliet’s mouth when it falls out, etc etc.

Lastly, I love is that I can pop the seat on for Noelle if for some reason Juliet DOES start to love babywearing. We specifically liked this seat because Noelle is super tall. The foot rest on the Uppa Baby folds UNDER so Noelle’s knees aren’t forced into her chest. The canopy adjusts for tall kiddos too. Now, even at the highest position, her head does still hit the canopy but she doesn’t seen to mind.