Is the SNOO really worth it?
For this anxious Mama, absolutely. Let me tell you why:
Here I am, in 2022, watching my three-month-old peacefully rocking in a robotic bassinet.
It’s called the SNOO. It is incredible.
If you had asked me during my first pregnancy (in the early pandemic days) if I would be shelling out this kind of cash on a bassinet, I would have said NO with 100% certainty. Honestly, I had registered the least expensive option knowing how temporary using a bassinet would be.
It is funny what weeks of sleepless days and nights will do to a person. Queue me “making it rain” while happily running off with our first (second-hand) SNOO in September of 2020 when my son was just five weeks old.
Before I get ahead of myself, you may be asking:
“What is a SNOO?”
You may have never heard the term SNOO. You may have heard but you are still wondering what is so great about a SNOO. Let me tell you, sleep, safety, and a ton of other features.
The SNOO is a smart sleeper bassinet with all the bells and whistles. According to the Happiest Baby website, “SNOO’s womb-like white noise and rocking soothes fussing and adds sleep, while its secure swaddle prevents risky rolling.” In short, it rocks them ALL NIGHT LONG so you can rest!
When the baby fusses the SNOO activates and increases the speed, sound type, and volume through four levels to soothe the baby back to sleep. For parents worried about this, the smart app on your phone allows you to limit this to your comfort level with a few great options!
And for those anxious parents, like me, wondering will my baby frickin’ starve in this robot contraption?! No, absolutely not. A hungry baby will keep at it until the SNOO reaches the 3-minute shutdown and you know to tend to a need beyond soothing.
Our SNOO story:
It was mid-2020, during the initial pandemic craze and I was pregnant with my first. I had not been able to attend any kind of classes for birthing or mom’ing and my anxiety was out of control by the time my son arrived. Nothing prepared me for the levels of rational and irrational fear I would encounter once I became a Mom.
We got home from the hospital and found ourselves so desperate we started doing all of the things you shouldn’t: passing out on the couch while holding him, trying to get him to sleep in the bed with us, sleeping him in a Boppy or swing, anything to get some sleep. It was not sustainable, or safe. On top of it, he had a floppy larynx and terrible reflux.
I was so anxious I couldn’t sleep regardless at this point. Something had to give. My cousin casually mentioned they had used something called a SNOO for her daughter and how great it had been for sleep in the early days. All I could think was, you got sleep?!
After weeks of this routine where we traded off holding him while he slept, went through various kinds of swaddles, and pacifiers, and even upgraded to a HALO bassinet from Facebook Marketplace. We were desperate. I suddenly remembered what my cousin had said and started to research what a SNOO was and how it could get me some sleep, and so the plan began.
My Mom came into town to help when my husband went back to work and I instantly recruited her to Operation Marketplace SNOO. I asked her if she wanted to make the two-hour trip to Chicago to snag one of these miracle machines and she agreed. It was the longest I had been away from my son but I was so focused on the promise of sleep, I hardly stopped to worry about the separation.
We arrived at a nice house in the Chicago suburbs and a man greeted us letting us know his wife had arranged all of this but he made it quite clear he was reluctant to let the SNOO go. He hyped up the best sleep of his kid’s life while he was in the SNOO, and how bad it had been ever since.
All I could think at that moment was I’d sell my soul for a good night’s rest! We paid him, loaded up, and headed back home to get this thing plugged in to work its magic. It was the longest two hours of my life (I also still had to face my husband who was beyond upset I had spent anywhere near this on a bassinet, even used).
So, did the SNOO actually work for us?
The SNOO delivered, above and beyond what we expected. Within a few short weeks, we were getting consistent eight to ten-hour stretches at night, longer naps, and contact-free naps, and such an improved quality of life for all.
It was a bittersweet day when we watched that first SNOO go to another exhausted and desperate family but we knew how much it would help them. At the time we did not know when or if we would add to our family and we had moved on to a Newton crib mattress (I will review that at a later date!) and outgrown our magical robot sleep aid.
Did the SNOO solve all your sleep problems?!
Now before I make this out to be a fail-proof, cure-all sleep dream machine, let me be completely honest.
It does not work 100% of the time.
Your baby still eats, needs a diaper change, and needs comfort every x amount of hours for the appropriate age. Regressions are a thing.
What it does promise is, “1-2 hours of sleep per night with constant womb-like motion and sound” according to the website. The claim of automatic sleep training (helping babies to connect sleep cycles) is also made to help the crib transition.
For us, it over-delivered on the extra sleep and sleep cycle connection while in the SNOO, but under-delivered once in the crib and we did have to relearn how to sleep through again. Even with that, IT WAS 100% WORTH IT!
How did you end up a repeat customer?
When we got pregnant again in December of 2021 and started talking about how great it was to be able to reuse so much of the baby stuff, especially big-ticket items, we quickly realized we were missing a very important one, maybe the most important to us.
This time around we decided to splurge on a brand new SNOO since we did not know the first-time warranty would not cover the second-hand SNOO and we did not want to take the risk. Even my husband was on board, in fact, he was driving the SNOO train.
We waited for a sale, which they had many of this year in 2022, and on father’s day, we ordered our second SNOO! Let me tell you, when that box arrived I felt some of the anxiety just melt off of me. I could not wait to set it up, WiFi it up, and be completely prepared for the homecoming of our second.
How has it worked this time around?
She is three and a half months now, and once again it was worth every penny.
What I will say is it worked differently for both kids.
For my son who cried a lot, the soothing features where the levels escalate sound and movement were used often. He refused a pacifier after he had oral ties revised around seven weeks and the SNOO was his soother. We were so thankful to have that option.
For my daughter, who is not a crier, we are not using the SNOO to its full potential with her, however, we are still getting eight to ten-hour stretches. It’s just the motion itself that helps her connect her sleep cycles and stay in that state of relaxation. She does take a pacifier which helps get her down but the SNOO keeps her asleep.
How has it helped me as an anxious Mom?
Being a SAHM who EBF’s (stay-at-home mom who exclusively breastfeeds) I can not tell you what a gift this bassinet was. Both of my kids have come in the post-pandemic world where people do not connect in person as they used to and besides my husband, I have had almost no help with the kids.
I can not imagine how much worse that would have been if I did not start getting some sleep after the first month of infancy.
Could I have survived it?
Probably.
Would I come out unscathed?
No way.
There is enough to worry about being a mom, especially a new mom, without adding a complete lack of sleep to the party.
Additionally, I had PPA on top of my already present panic disorder. When you add in how much focus we spend on safe sleep and shaming parents for even considering anything else, well, I was a complete mess. The SNOO (and a few other baby items) helped to ease that for me. I knew my babies were both safe in the SNOO.
Would I recommend it to everyone?
In short, yes.
If you are considering a smart sleeper of any kind go for the SNOO. There is nothing that compares to it both safety-wise and feature-wise. We have owned two, and used two, with two very different babies and the results were the same, more sleep.
There are rental and purchase options to meet the needs of everyone, as well as a pretty hefty refund policy.
Does the SNOO end up working for every kid?
No, there are cases where I have heard it is either not needed (unicorn sleepers) or there are medical issues that go beyond the SNOO capabilities. It does, however, seem to live up to or exceed the claims made by most families who have tried it. It certainly did for us, twice.
I am in no way being endorsed or making anything for this, just here as an honest SNOO user and lover hoping it can help someone reading this to have a little easier time those first six months.
Breathe out the anxiety. Mom on. Parent on. SNOO on.
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