Grocery Shopping with a Baby

Grocery shopping has been difficult for almost eight months now.  We couldn't quite figure it out.  The stroller couldn't fit much underneath, and if you fill the grocery cart with the baby, you can't fit any groceries.  I've also seen hooks for the stroller to hold bags, but I was worried about flipping the cart with too much weight on one side.  Some car seats can hook on the the child part of the grocery carriage, but our's was not a perfect fit and could only balance.

Luke helping us grocery shop circa age 3 months old.

That is until...today!  Luke has mastered sitting and we decided to try out his new Floppy Seat from Babies R Us.  It was on sale for $15.00.  

Here's what we learned this morning:

1.  Park next to the "carriage return" spot where there is a carriage.  This way you can set it up with the baby still in the car seat.  The packaging says you can set it up with one hand while holding the baby.  Well pardon me, but I couldn't.  

2.  Make sure you are putting the right side down.  I put it on wrong, which technically voided the whole point since the part he eventually was sitting on had originally touched all of the germs.  Well, we're not completely anti-germs, and we will do better next time.

3.  Bring a snack and/or toys.  How wonderful that Luke can work on his Puffs in the grocery store.  When he was only nursing, we had to rush home when he was hungry.  Now he can just pop in a few Puffs!

4.  We went about one hour before nap time.  As soon as we got home, he was exhausted and ready for a nap.  This left me time to put groceries away!  (Obviously this could work against you if the baby is too tired and gets cranky with the over stimulation of the store combined with sitting up.)

Luke had a great time!  He was so interested in all of the people and he got so many smiles from them!  I'm always so proud of him when he can cheer up so many people in such a short time.  Here was the progression of our trip:

Mom, this is new!  What are you doing!?

Let's go down the Baby Aisle, I need to pick up a few things.

I could get used to this, Mom.

We can't go in the 12 Items of Less lane, Mom.  I'm counting about 15 things.

Did we forget something...?

Silly me, we got everything we needed!

Luke's new Fall fleece is from Carter's, we both love it!

Another nice feature  is that the seat folds up!  (This photo was from the Babies R Us website, mine didn't look that neat!)

Also, I give you credit if you are able to grocery shop with more than one child.  That's a whole new ballgame.  I'm tempted to use Stop&Shop's Peapod service, too.  (This is basically online shopping for groceries, though I know Stop&Shop is not in every state).  One of my family members has used it a few times with great success.  If you find yourself buying the same things each week, it seems like it is worth a try.  You can enter your S&S savings card number and all of your previous purchases appear (creepy but helpful).  There is a minimal delivery charge, and supposedly the produce is fresher because it comes straight from the warehouse.  

Do you have any other grocery shopping suggestions?