In May 2014, I was about 14 weeks pregnant when me and Katy went to The Baby Show at the NEC.
It was crazy! Who knew there were so many gadgets for babies! Pushchairs, travel systems, cots, Moses baskets, travels cots, the list goes on and on and on…
The thing I wanted to see the most was some pushchairs. There were lots of different shops and manufacturers display what pushchairs they had to offer, Mothercare, Mamas and Papas, Cosatto, etc.
I test ran just one. Because I LOVED it.
We were at the Cosatto stand and I saw this Yellow and Brown pushchair, it was a travel system, the car seat went on the Chassis, it had a changing bag that matched, it was lovely. It was the Marzipan Ooba.
All three parts of the pushchair!
The sales lady showed us what it did;
- The handle flips to both sides
- The big wheels can be at the front (for the different terrain)
- The little front wheels can lock
- The handle bar adjusts in height (so its tall enough for Dan!)
- The big seat for 6 months + can be parent facing or world facing
- The car seat can go on the Chassis
- The back wheels are huge
- The basket underneath is big
- It can be folded up with one hand (ish)
- The brakes are hand brakes not foot brakes
- The pushchair was very easy to push
The list could go on and on. I had a look at a lot of other pushchairs but I didn’t find one that looked as nice or as practical.
I went on about it for weeks and I wanted it.
Fortunately my dad sorted it for me on my maternity leave and I got the Marzipan Ooba delivered when I was 36/37 weeks pregnant.
Unfortunately, when Alfie arrived and when we first started using it we have had a few problems.
The Ooba was supposed to be Cosatto’s flagship pushchair. It is supposed to be the best thing that they sold at the time. It should be for the £800 price tag!
It didn’t seem worth it when we first got it.
We had a few problems;
- A stain on the apron of the carrycot
- A problem with the brakes
- Another problem with the fixed pushchair after they’d “fixed” the brakes
- A pushchair that slides around everywhere on the bus and when the brakes are on
Cosatto were very good and took our Ooba to the Cosatto Pushchair Hospital to get it fixed a few times. We even have new wheels to see if that solved one of the problems!
Alfie in the big boy part of the pushchair!
However, once the problems were sorted I was able to fall in love with it again. It’s a lovely pushchair, everybody comments on it. It’s lovely to push, you can do it one-handed, it moves really nicely and it’s not hard work to turn and move around. I love that the hood and the cross-bar are both wipe clean so they can’t get mucky.
Alfie is very into bright colours, it’s a good job really. He really likes pointing out the colours on the inside of the hood, it’s great for newborns to have something pretty to look at and it turns out it’s educational for toddlers too. Bonus!
There are pros and cons to every pushchair and not everyone will agree with all the points I’ve made, you have to pick a pushchair that you like. One that works for you, fits in your car, is everything you need it to be. This is what I wanted and I’m glad I picked it!
Pros
- It’s all terrain. It pushes really well in the snow and on the beach!
- It’s bright and bold and catches the eye of lots of people
- The baby seat is big and can definitely be used until at least 6 months (unless you have a huge baby!)
- The wheels are fairly easily cleaned
- It’s lovely and easy to push
- The handle bar comes up high so it’s perfect for tall daddy’s
- The basket underneath is a very good size
- The toddler seat part is parent facing. We still keep Alfie parent facing a lot of the time
Cons
- Alfie is tall, so at 21 months his head now touches the top
- It is very big when folded, so if you have a small boot you may struggle
- The raincover is a tight fit, you have to fight it on.
- It’s not easy to take the baby unit off the chassis alone, well not unless you have extra long arms!
We’ve now had the Ooba for 21 months and we’ve had a love/hate relationship! I do love it at the moment though, and I’m sad that Alfie is outgrowing it, but it’s in great condition and last’s very well, so it can definitely be used for baby number 2. That was the bonus of the Marzipan Yellow colour and it being a unisex colour, it doesn’t matter if we were to have another boy or a girl.
I’ve got to say that I’ve seen the new prints that Cosatto has at the moment, and the only two things I’d swap my Marzipan Ooba for are the ‘Fox Tale’ (which is quite obvious as to why!) and the Wonder Kew! The Wonder is an amazingly designed pushchair and it’s definitely on my wishlist…
You can find the gorgeous Cosatto Pushchairs here!
What is important for you looking at a pushchair? Height, weight, size? Colour, how it pushes, what terrains you can push it on? There is so much to think about and my gosh is it an expensive purchase so pick wisely. You can test drive so many pushchairs now that it’s definitely worth having a look at what’s out there.
Mummy Fox! xx
