i think for the pram it's really a matter of deciding what's important to you (how do you plan to use the pram - long walks over rough terrain, just around the shops, short walks on the footpath) & then go & test drive a few. we also took personal recommendations from a couple of friends. we liked the 4 wheelers better than the 3 wheelers so that also narrowed down our search. we have a strider 4 & have been really happy with it. we also go the bassinet attachment & that was great at the start - DS even slept in it most of the time till he was a couple of months old.

the cot was (for us) a matter of balancing one that met australian safety standards, look, cost & i preferred to get an australian made one. the one i wanted was out of our price range but we found one in excellent condition on ebay & that came with a matching change table. in the end, i shouldn't have bothered because our DS has had something against the cot from day one & never slept in it for more than 2 months. other than that, he's co-slept with me/us in either a mattress on the floor, his bed or our bed

for the car seat i did some research & looked at product review sites which narrowed it down to a brand. then it was a matter of finding one that fit in my (not very big) car.

i found it helpful to go & look in a couple of the big baby stores & then search around online to see if i could find a better deal.

i've been really happy with our pram & car seat. the cot was lovely but just not for our DS. this time round i'm looking at the cost to hire a capsule for the car for the first few months & also at getting a bassinet or hammock.