Let me start this post by saying, I LOVE SLEEP. I can fall
asleep at night (or in the morning) after drinking a full cup of coffee. Before
we had a baby, I believed that naps weren’t worth taking unless you could sleep
for three hours straight. So suffice to say, one of the biggest decisions we
had to make (I thought) when preparing for Baby to arrive was what he was going
to sleep in.
After much research, we ended up getting a Pack N’ Play,
which many of our friends with kids had and used in their room until the baby
outgrew it and moved to a crib in his own room. It was practical I told myself:
not only was it incredibly affordable, but it grew with the kid (could be used
as a play pen later) and the one we purchased also came with a changing table
attachment so we wouldn’t need one in our bedroom.
So we brought Baby home and let him sleep in the Pack N’
Play. It worked – and by worked I mean, the baby slept in it. But he didn’t sleep
well, 2-3 hour stretches at a time, which is to be expected for a newborn. But when
we hit the four to five-week mark and were looking at Dad returning to work soon
I knew I wasn’t going to survive handling 3-4 nightly feedings all on my own. So
I made the leap and rented a Snoo Smart Sleeper.
What It Is:
I had seen the Snoo when we first got pregnant (it’s like
online ads just know). It’s basically
a very expensive, technology-advanced baby bassinet that plays white noise and
constantly rocks your baby while it sleeps. If your baby fusses it helps to
comfort your baby so you (hopefully) don’t have to.
I told Todd I might
get it and made the point – and he agreed – that you couldn’t put a price on
sleep. But the price for sleep was expensive. The cost to purchase a Snoo is
$1,295… and it can only be used till the baby is roughly six months of age.
Fortunately for us, shortly before Baby was born Snoo
launched a rental program. For $112 a month (or $3.50 a day) the Snoo, they
say, can get you 1-2 hours more of sleep a night. To the normal person, this may
not sound like a lot. To a sleep-deprived parent 1-2 hours a night is like an
extra 3-4 hours a night to a regular person.
But at the end of the day it wasn’t the price that dissuaded
me so much as I wondered whether it would it actually work. And would it
actually work for OUR baby (because as many parents claimed their baby loved
it, there were just as many who said their baby hated it and screamed their
heads off).
Now our Baby is a pretty easy baby by most definitions (I’m
sure I paid for this somehow in a previous life… or will when he turns two) and
he took quite quickly to the Snoo. It says that if you don’t use it starting
from birth that it could take about a week to see any effect, and after a week passed,
sure enough, he was sleeping at least four-hour stretches. By the time he hit
two months he slept for eight hours straight and started regularly sleeping
6-8 hour stretches at a time.
So suffice to say, we love the Snoo. This is not to say that
we didn’t also start implementing a number of other sleep training methods I
read about, such as creating a bedtime routine. But I have recommended the Snoo
to many other parents-to-be to at least consider renting. If you’re thinking
about getting the Snoo, here are some pros and cons to consider:
WHAT I LIKE:
- They offer a pretty generous military discount. The discount includes 40% off the purchase of a Snoo or 10% off your monthly rental. I thought it would be a pain to submit all the documentation to get the discount but it was actually super easy and fast. Plus they credited me the discount since I was lazy and didn’t request it when I first started the rental process.
- The way it’s designed your baby is literally strapped to his or her back, which is supposed to be the safest sleeping position for infants. This brought some peace of mind to a new parent.
- It comes with a weaning feature. The designers of the Snoo really thought of everything and that is how they would answer parents’ biggest question “but how are we going to transition our baby to a crib once he outgrows the Snoo?” We haven’t started using the feature yet but will have to soon. Basically, it just stops the constant rocking and white noise and only rocks the baby if he fusses.
- It has an app. We use our phones for a lot of baby things – like tracking how much he eats a day. So why not his sleep? The app that comes with the Snoo is helpful (for example you can increase the level of “comfort” virtually from the living room if you hear the baby fussing on the monitor without getting up off the couch). I also like seeing how much he’s slept and can look back at his sleep patterns over time. But there are some tweaks that could make it better like showing the time you stop the Snoo to pick up the baby (in addition the time you start the Snoo back up again).
HOW THE SNOO COULD BE BETTER:
- For the rental, you need to return the Snoo (obviously). However, the box that it comes in and the way that its packaged makes this a big challenge. When I told my husband that he’d have to package everything back in the same box it came in he said boxing it to mail back was going to be impossible. I told him he didn’t have a choice and that there was a video with tips. We’ll see how that goes.
- I mentioned this before but it isn’t cheap (to put it lightly). I’m sure there are a lot of other baby necessities you could spend $112 a month on (or more if you decide to purchase it). Like diapers. Or formula. Or pajamas (which my baby keeps outgrowing). Personally, I miss mani/pedis.
- It’s not light. Probably because of all the STUFF it does it is quite heavy and is not a bassinet that in my opinion, you could easily and quickly move around your room. It took both me and my husband to maneuver it up the stairs and I’m pretty sure its weight is just another reason he is not looking forward to packing it up and mailing it back.
Right now we’re dealing with four-month sleep regression.
SUPER FUN. Got tips for surviving? Leave them in the comments below!
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