Biking With A Baby Ages 5 Weeks- 12 Months

Baby on board! Biking with our daughter this past year has been an empowering experience. When my son was born I waited a whole year to bike with him. I hadn't yet discovered the American mothers of this biking world and was far to nervous to recreate the normality of biking with a baby I had seen in Amsterdam as a first time mom. (Shout out to the Amsterdam mom who was wearing her baby while feeding it a bottle as she was biking!)

But once baby J came in to our lives I felt like we needed to figure out how to accommodate her into this amazing car-lite lifestyle we had created for ourselves and honestly the bus with two kids seemed way more terrifying then figuring out biking. So like any normal Mom I talked my husband into buying an Urban Arrow and the needed instruments to install a maxi cosi car seat (and promise a one year review coming up shortly).  

The box bike gave us the ability to bike with an infant in a way that a front mounted seat (rated 9 months+) couldn't. Over the almost past 11 months J has snugly rode in the box and I wanted to share the stages and contracptions we have used to move her over this past year. ***Please remember we are not professionals or doctors. Just parents who ride bikes with our kids.***

Stage One: 5 weeks- 3 months 

Infant Carseat (Maxi-Cosi Mico) w/ Tie Down Straps

How we did it: We laid a blanket between floor of cargo box and carseat and used two tie down straps from IKEA to snuggly strap down seat. One strap went over the area used for lap seat belts. The other went through metal bar on back of seat. Both were strapped through the foot holes on either side of box.
Cost: Carseat (pre-owned from big brother, retails $200), Tie Down Straps $15

Stage Two: 3 months- 8 months
Infant Carseat (Maxi-Cosi Mico) w/ Stecco Baby Mee
How we did it: We purchase the Stecco Baby Mee from Rolling Orange and installed it in the UA. I talk about installation here. It provided the ability to take the carseat in and out while J was still asleep.
Cost: Carseat, Baby Mee was approx. $100

Stage Three: 8 months- 10 months
Phil&Ted's SMART Stroller Seat w/Stecco Baby Mee

How we did it: We used a stroller seat and placed it in the Baby Mee frame. We detail installation here.
Cost: SMART Stroller seat (pre-owned but the seat part retails for $25), Baby Mee

Stage Four: 11 months +
Yepp Mini w/ custom Mount for Urban Arrow Box
How we did it: Busy Bikes in The Netherlands makes a specific Urban Arrow, Yepp Mini bracket. However it wasn't readily available to send to the US. So our local cargo bike shop, Firth & Wilson created a custom bracket for the bike. They installed with bolts into the UA base, something like this could also be drilled into a wood box.
Cost: Yepp Mini pre-owned retails for $150, Bracket Approx. $100+

Happy Birthday J!